


Ask Me No Questions (I'll Tell You No Lies)

by inkheart9459



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anathema Zabini, F/F, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Multi, Truth Spells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:35:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 107,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26307169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkheart9459/pseuds/inkheart9459
Summary: Hermione doesn't know what to expect when she hears her squad up in arms over something. It certainly isn't Narcissa Black come to her department to report being hit with a brand new truth curse. It seems nothing about the case is to be expected, especially after Narcissa brings Anathema Zabini in after being hit with the same curse. All she does know is that she has to solve this case somehow before both women drive her to an early grave.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Mrs Zabini, Hermione Granger/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Narcissa Black Malfoy/Mrs Zabini, Narcissa Black Malfoy/Mrs Zabini
Comments: 184
Kudos: 824





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is all TheWorldsaBeastofBurden's fault. She gave me Anathema Zabini and let me in on the future plot points for Fixed in Time and I could not stop thinking about her and then THIS happened. So. Entirely her fault. Also if you haven't read Fixed in Time. Go do that. Trust me. Fanfic gold.

Hermione heard a commotion in the outer office and frowned. Just what in the world were her officers doing  _ now _ ? She’d been proud to take the promotion to head of the Spelled Assault department the year before after only four years on the job. She’d risen through the ranks rather quickly but then again, well, she was the brightest witch of her age and had had the highest clearance rate of well...anyone. And the Spelled Assault department was only the first stepping stone. There were other, bigger, far more prestigious departments in the DMLE that would be next for her she was sure. Spelled Assault wasn’t really all that glamorous. Anything dark magic based got shunted off to the Aurors and anything really violent got tasked off either to them or to another department within the lower DMLE. They mostly got marital disputes and bar fights. As such her officers...well.

She opened her door to find a gaggle of them, mostly young recruits looking to prove themselves enough to be promoted elsewhere and a couple old timers who still had enough spunk in them to actually get off their chairs, surrounding something or perhaps someone. Her eyes rolled and she walked forward. What was it now? Had someone turned their wife’s Pomeraian rainbow? Cursed dogs usually did draw the biggest crowds. They were usually cute. Only real psychopaths actually  _ harmed  _ dogs.

But getting closer to the group, they definitely didn’t sound like it was a cute dog in the middle of the circle. If anything they sounded rather angry and Hermione rather wished she was tall enough to get a glimpse over everyone’s heads.

“Oi, what’s a broad like you doing in here though?” Williams growled, a grizzled man who’d been with the DMLE long enough to both be at the top of his career and take a startling fall after deserting during the war, he snarled at just about everyone now, counting the days until retirement. Hermione mostly avoided the man.

“I’ve been cursed. This is the spelled assault department. I thought it was the best place to go since it didn’t immediately harm me so it didn’t need the attention of aurors. I would rather not draw their attention considering who I am. I’m still afraid I might go to Azkaban if I look at one of them wrong,” answered cultured tones that Hermione vaguely recognized.

“Ya should be in Azkaban. You had’ta’ve done somethin’.” And there was Hawthorn, as always, dumber than a box of rocks and not nearly as useful.

“I did nothing but support my husband and later my son. While it may not have been morally right nothing I did was actually illegal. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad about it, but I was doing what was best for my family.” The voice was getting rather frustrated. “And I came here to report an actual crime. So if I could do that and you could do your jobs then I would be out of your hair and we could all get on with our lives and I wouldn’t have to see your faces anymore. I should’ve just dealt with it on my own.”

“What’s going on,” Hermione said, speaking up just enough to be heard over the crowd. Her officers froze and turned to face her, all looking more than a bit sheepish.

“Nothing ma’am, just some riff raff walking in offa the street,” Crooks, one of the young and up and coming officers answers. He had the decency to blush.

“It  _ sounds _ ,” she said in a low voice that everyone who knew better cringed at, “like someone wanted to make a police report after being cursed.” She turned to the board, marked with the rotation on who would be assigned the next case. “And Barrows, that should be your job to take the statement and do the preliminary, shouldn’t it?” She asked, looking at a man who’d been demoted to her squad the month before for going against his head of department’s orders. She wasn’t exactly surprised that he wasn’t taking a statement. The man was a loose canon and definitely didn’t deserve to be in law enforcement. Well. None of them did really, save perhaps Rose and Amelia, they actually wanted to help people but got drowned out most of the time by all the men who were there mostly to feel a sense of power and nothing else. Ruling over her department, to try and make it actually fair, it took up much more time than it actually should. 

“Well, ma’am considering the person, I think it’s honestly the payback she deserves after the war,” Barrows drawled as if he had no cares in the world. Oh. He would have a few as soon as she had a say about it. She damn well determined that when she was done with him, he wouldn’t just be demoted, and that would be well on its way to happening if he disobeyed a direct order.

“No one deserves to be cursed and if they aren’t in Azkaban right now they’d been deemed not guilty of any crimes. So take their statement.” She looked at him and arched an eyebrow. Sure working in a department of stubborn law enforcement officers could get tiring, but she was hard headed and determined and never gave first. She wouldn’t this time either. 

“I’m not comfortable with that ma’am,” Barrows bit out. “She can rot for all I care.”

“I don’t care if you’re comfortable or not.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked back to the board. “You have the fewest open cases of anyone on this squad. It is your turn to take a new case. And it’s a direct order from your head of department.”

His face turned from red, to puce, to purple. It couldn’t have been a healthy reaction. But if he came at her he’d be off the force for good and she could handle herself. And even if he shouted at her and told her to go to hell, well, he would be disobeying a direct order and displaying ardent insubordination in front of the whole squad. She’d have more than enough to start building a case against him.

“No,” he finally said. “I’m not talking to that bitch, let alone working her case. I don’t care if I get desk duty for it. It’s fucking worth it. Fucking death eater scum.” 

She looked around the room, met the eyes of all her officers, and saw that most of them agreed with him, even if they were smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Her eyes flicked back to the caseloads of Amelia and Rose, no they were too full up. Half the time they ended up with half finished cases from their fellow officers on top of the ones they got assigned through the lottery and the ones she assigned to them specifically because she knew they were the only ones who could handle them. Fine. 

“Alright then, consider yourself on desk duty until the higher ups review your gross insubordination and make a ruling. Until then, you’re dismissed for the day.” She waved him off.

“Bitch,” he muttered under his breath as he walked by her to get to his desk and grab his things.

She turned to him and raised her eyebrow again. “What was that, Barrows?”

“Nothing,” he said, not meeting her eyes. 

“I didn’t think so.” All bark but exactly no backbone. Typical. She would be doing her damnedest to make this into more than desk duty. She turned to the rest of her squad. “Off with the lot of you then, I know you have things to do.” The crowd cleared quickly, all going back to their desks or bustling off elsewhere to work on their cases and she was left with a sight she wouldn’t have suspected in a thousand years. Narcissa Black in her department, looking haughty still, if a bit harried around the edges.

“Miss Black, follow me to my office then. Considering your treatment I think it’s best I work your case myself.” She looked over her officers, giving them all very disappointed looks, not that that really seemed to do much, but she did appreciate some of the ashamed looks she got.

She wanted to help and make a difference in this job, to change policies for the better in law enforcement, but sometimes, oh sometimes, like right then, she rather wished she’d gone with her other choice to work at the Department of Magical Creatures instead. She was rather tired of playing pissing games with incompetent men and it had only been five years. But her department had improved under her. It had. So perhaps she would just work this case and continue on as she had been, but Merlin would she be glad to move up the ranks to make more changes so she would have to put up with less of this and then eventually ascend to Minister of Magic when the time was right.

She entered her office and gestured for Narcissa to take a seat. The woman stepped past her and sunk down gracefully as Hermione shut the door behind them and moved to take her own seat behind her desk. She grabbed the requisite paperwork to open a case, pulled a transcription quill from her desk and set it on the statement section before she looked up at Narcissa again. 

“Alright then, Miss Black, could you tell me the nature of the curse you’re under if you’re aware of it.”

“Oh, I’m very well aware of it. It’s rather hard to miss considering telling the direct truth wasn’t exactly something I was raised to do, but now I find myself doing so without thought and I cannot seem to stop myself. Additionally, if I go too long without speaking, I will just blurt out random, rather embarrassing facts about myself. So, it has been the exact opposite of fun and I would love to stop, but considering it’s been happening for over a day now, and considering I haven’t eaten or drank anything outside of my home for the last three days, I don’t think it’s veritaserum. Given the fact that there was a bit of a warm feeling that washed over me yesterday when I was out in Diagon Alley, it seems some sort of a curse is more likely.”

Hermione nodded and watched her quill write everything down word for word. “Alright then, so yesterday in Diagon Alley. Did you see who cursed you?”

Narcissa shook her head. “No, not at all. I looked around after I felt the tingling but honestly, I was out with my dear friend Anathema Zabini and I attributed the tingling feeling to her looping her arm through mine. I enjoyed it very much. Her touch has always made me feel wonderful.” Her face colored deep red with a blush and she closed her eyes. “After I found myself with this Godric be damned urge to tell the truth, I didn’t much realize it until an hour or so later. I’m mostly truthful with Anathema. I only really lie to her about two things, my former relationship with my husband and the form of relationship I wish the two of us had.”

She couldn’t help but stare at the woman. Narcissa Black was at the very least bisexual. Who would have thought. Merlin, was she glad she had decided to take this case. If any one of her officers had...well she didn’t much trust them to handle it as it should be handled, namely that nothing she shared under the duress of this spell left the building, and to only ask the questions needed to solve the case. Anything more than that, since she was under a compulsion was a gross overstep.

“Why wait a day to come in then if you realized yesterday?”

Narcissa sighed and looked away from Hermione. “It isn’t the first time that I’ve been struck with a spell or two while I’m out. People don’t like that I still walk free, they think I’m a problem that the ministry let escape without punishment so they take it into their hands to cause a bit of trouble and make themselves feel better. I’m rather used to them and I’ve developed shields that block most common hexes, curses, and jinxes. No one has ever been foolish enough to send anything my way that would cause lasting damage. They still think they’re the good guys after all, and of course the good guys wouldn’t harm another person. For long.” She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t come in because I thought it would fade with time, but it hasn’t, and I find myself rather unable to conduct my business as I need to. I launched my boutique potion line last year, and well, business and honesty aren’t the best of bedfellows. Also, this curse isn’t just on spoken word, but in all forms of communication, so I can’t be saved by writing. Mostly I’m reporting this so I can have access to the ministry curse breakers without them thinking that this is something I’ve done to myself, or some other death eater who managed to escape has done. I want actual help. This seemed to be the only way to get it. Black family money doesn’t seem to buy as much as it once did.” She frowned but shook her head. “Not that it’s really right to bribe and buy people off, but I do actually need help, and in the last five years, well, that seems to be the only way I get it.”

“Ok then, those are sound reasons, but I assure you I’m going to do my level best to actually solve the case to make sure whoever did this to you so they don’t get away with it. This is a crime, an assault on your person, and it can’t stand.” She set her quill to fill out a few more of the other boxes with bits of already known information as she looked at the other woman. “But as far as the curse breakers go, well, I’m a damned sight better than most of the people the ministry employs. Being the brightest witch of an age seems to mean something I suppose.” She smiled at the woman. “Also, my personally working on you would benefit in that, once I break the curse I get an imprint of the magic of whoever cast it, that will be very helpful in identifying suspects, especially given that you aren’t sure who cursed you, that might be our only solid lead in this. We have the imprints of known offenders on file here, plus a great many others who’ve needed such things taken to access to restricted sections of various ministry departments. Running it through a matching program there might give us some leads, and if not, well, there are a number of ardent supporters of locking up anyone who was even marginally involved with Voldemort that we can interview as well.”

Narcissa nodded her understanding. “Well then, I’d be remiss not to use your services, Miss Granger. I can’t say I’m disappointed at having to spend a bit more time with you. Your defense of me earlier to your staff, even before you knew who I was, was admirable and perhaps a bit exciting as I find you very attractive.” She sighed dramatically. “If you could please ignore the more embarrassing parts of my answers, that would be appreciated.” 

Hermione picked up her quill and set it back in the statement box, looking over the information it had pulled from what she had so far and had filled in the other boxes necessary. It had done a decent job. Paying for her own transcription quill had definitely been worth it. The cheap ministry ones were terrible. 

“Think nothing of it, Miss Black. I realize what duress you might be under. They will go in one ear and out the other.”

“Thank you, I’m very grateful.” Narcissa looked wholly relieved. 

“It’s nothing. Now, do you have any idea who would’ve done this to you? You might not have seen them but sometimes suspicions can be right. Is anyone in your life acting suspiciously?”

“Well, Draco is acting rather suspiciously, but I suspect that’s more because he’s gotten himself in a relationship with Harry Potter and possibly Ginny Potter as well? I’m unclear of the details of that arrangement. Two gay parents and apparently that means that he likes both men and women, though he hasn’t explicitly told me. I’ve seen enough from watching Lucius to know when a man is attracted to another man.” She huffed out a breath. “But that wasn’t the actual question. I apologize, sometimes the answers I give can be rather literal instead of answering what the question is actually about. While I have a few people in mind who might have done this to me, I’ve already checked and they were otherwise occupied during the time I was in Diagon Alley, but I’ll give you their names just for thoroughness. Had they really wanted to they could’ve sent a servant, but I doubt it. They would’ve wanted to bask in my condition. Ash Silverling, Ivy Cygnet, and Luther Inkwood.”

All purebloods from the surnames, though not the most powerful among them by a longshot. “Why them?”

“I slighted Ash at a ball the year of our debut into society, it caused her to have to marry lower than she had hoped. She’s held a grudge ever since. What I said about her wasn’t untrue though and it was a rather large red flag so I stand by the decision, even if at the time it was petty. Had she married into a higher family, been in Voldemort's circle...quite possibly there might have been two Bellatrixs.”

Hermione shuddered. “Well then, a snake’s a snake. Wonderful sounding woman. And the rest?”

“Ivy Cygnet desperately wanted to marry Lucius, thought he was the most handsome man in the world, charming, debonair, and she would do anything to get her hands on him. Unfortunately for her he’s gay so he wasn’t rather interested. Lucius knew he would be forced into a marriage whether he wanted one or not, as did I. Being the man, and being afforded an actual choice in the matter, if somewhat limited by family preference, he picked me almost as soon as he could. We both loved only the same gender and it was better to end up with someone in the same situation than not, but I had to be presented to society before he could ask for my hand. Since he was two years older, he had to wait a year after coming of age. Ivy was after him that entire time. She rather hates him for taking her man from him, to put it mildly.”

“Do all your biggest grudges have to do with marriage?”

“Mostly, yes, it is the most important thing in pureblood society, making sure that the blood is passed on, marrying well, marrying rich, hopefully to a house that’s higher in status than yours or at least equivalent. As such it generates a great amount of hate. Not that I don’t have other enemies, mind you, they are just the ones who have acted before.”

“Inkwood as well?”

“No, he is...different. He’s an old business partner of Lucius. He wanted to sleep with me. I said no. Apparently that’s been enough for him to come after me ever since.” She shrugged. “He isn’t particularly clever though, I’ve stopped his other attempts quickly. Even if he was in the country I’m not sure he would’ve been able to pull this off considering this isn’t a run of the mill curse.”

No, Hermione thought, it wasn’t. As far as she was aware there wasn’t a truth serum curse, only the potion. Someone had to have concocted this from scratch and to do that they needed a certain level of skill at least beyond just sheer determination.

“Alright then, I’ll check them out to make sure nothing about them pulls up any red flags.” She looked down at what she had and nodded. Those were the basics. She was sure she would get more as she was trying to break the curse. She pulled up her calendar and sighed. She really should get a start on trying to break it today, considering it was causing Narcissa grief, but most of her afternoon was booked out with a meeting with her higher ups that she definitely couldn’t miss. Curse breaking usually took up large chunks of time. Leaving magic half undone was dangerous. She needed time to make sure if she started something she could clamp it off in a stable configuration, and with only an hour left before her meeting, that wasn’t much in the cards.

“I would like to get started on the curse breaking today, but I have a meeting in an hour with my bosses that will run for most of the afternoon. It’s not enough time to really dive in safely, as much as I know this is bothering you, I want to break it as soon as possible, but bureaucracy.” She frowned and rolled her eyes. “It’s not an important meeting and, Merlin, do we have a lot of them that could be summed up in a memo, but I’m the newest department head, so. Do you have free time tomorrow so that we can crack into it together?”

“Yes, I’ll be free after lunch. Considering I can’t exactly interact with anyone in a business sense right now other than filling orders my time in the office has shortened dramatically.” She grimaced.

Hermione checked her own schedule and nodded. “That’s good then. I'll see you after lunch. In the meantime I’ll look and confirm that the people you mentioned had nothing to do with it.” Even if they hadn’t been in the country, she could look through their financials easily enough. If they’d been involved there would be money moved around somewhere to pay off the person they’d hired to do it. 

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” Narcissa stood. “I hope you have a nice rest of your day. Someone as beautiful as you should.” She looked to the high heavens before sighing. “I will see you tomorrow then.” She nodded and took her leave. 

Hermione looked after her frowning. Well. Being told she was beautiful certainly wasn’t a bad way to spend some of her work day. Especially when the compliment came from Narcissa Black, a beautiful woman in her own right. She bit her lip, watching the woman slip from the department, no, not a bad way to spend part of her day at all.


	2. Chapter 2

The lunch hour slipped her by without notice. She ate a sandwich at her desk, pouring over paperwork as was her usual. Running a department took so much paperwork, and what wasn’t taken up by paperwork was taken up by meetings. The real work she managed to get done outside of those two things was almost always because she was pulling extra hours, working through lunch, working early, working late. If only half her staff kept the same hours, they’d have all their cases solved in record time, but she did appreciate that not everyone was so devoted nor should they be, and were her officers actually decent humans, she would be more than ok with that. But since they weren’t, well, perhaps she did hold a bit of a grudge that work wasn’t their first priority. 

So to say that she was surprised when Narcissa Black knocked on her open door was saying something. She jumped in her seat, ink splattering on the page she’d been filling out. She cursed quietly and flicked her wand at the dot of ink removing it before it had time to dry thankfully. She looked up to see the blonde woman looking a bit apologetic but more amused than anything else.

“I would apologize for making you jump, but since I can’t tell anything but the truth, I can’t do that. Instead I can only tell you I found it rather adorable.” She shrugged her shoulders, face resigned to the fact that until the curse was lifted she was just going to compliment Hermione Granger. Or possibly hit on her? It was unclear. At least to Hermione. Oh she was a damned good detective, but actually knowing when someone was flirting with her? No, she couldn’t manage that.

“Sorry, I meant to finish up before you were scheduled to be here, but I swear the paperwork in my inbox multiples overnight like a bunch of jackrabbits.” She gestured at the box which was now almost all the way empty, though not quite. “I wanted to make sure I had the rest of the day to focus on the curse.” Considering how much paperwork was left, well, she could focus on the curse until the end of the normal business day, but then she’d have to order takeout and spend another few hours here considering this wasn’t where her paperwork pile would stay. Working this case was going to require even more hours. She sighed and mentally canceled her Saturday plans. So much for one glorious day of sleeping in.

“I technically could come back if you are still busy.”

Hermione looked up at the other woman and smirked. “Learning how to state things so they’re still the truth even if your intent is different?”

Narcissa nodded. “It was only a matter of time before I managed to do so. Slytherin was certainly the house where I belonged, not just because of family history. Though I’m not sure anyone growing up with my mother would’ve been anything but. Horrible woman, verbally abusive on a daily basis, physically when it suited her and when she could hide it from my father. We all learned how to tell half-truths and twist things to our advantage rather early.” She took a deep breath. “And such technically true statements only are allowed when I concentrate very hard on choosing the right words, otherwise well.” She gestured vaguely as if to her previous words.

“Mmm, sounds like a lovely woman. The more I hear about pureblood families, the more I’m glad I wasn’t born into one, despite having to fight a war to keep my place here.”

Narcissa frowned and looked away. “I suppose this would be the only time this might be believed, so perhaps it is best to say this now, I am sorry for...everything, especially for that night in...with Bellatrix.”

Hermione swallowed. “It’s...it’s not fine, but considering all the things that came out in the trials...you were as much a prisoner in your own home as I was, if more...complicit. I don’t imagine you were ever quite so insane as to enjoy watching a child be tortured. I imagine you were forced to watch.”

She nodded slowly. “To demonstrate my...devotion to him. Bella thought it was good fun, a splendid idea, and when I didn’t think so...well.”

“I understand, and I hold no grudges. I’m not about to go exploiting this truth spell for anything other than the answers I need to solve this case. Even if this was just after the war, even if I hadn’t had time to heal, I would’ve never done that.” She met Narcissa’s eyes, gaze steady. She was a good woman in a storm and an even better one in calm seas. “War isn’t as black and white as Dumbledore wished Harry, Ron and I would believe it. So why drag it out when the guilty have been punished and everyone who went along just to survive has paid a different kind of penance.”

Narcissa looked at her with careful eyes. “Miss Granger, you’re a rather remarkable woman. Perhaps still naive, but remarkable nonetheless. I know that isn’t forgiveness, but it shades to such. No one else in your position would offer even that. Beyond that, I’m sure anyone else wouldn’t have taken my case. Why?”

“Because I don’t take the easy road and never have. How can I want to change the wizarding world itself, without allowing things around me to change? Forgiveness is hard, but the change it brings about is worth it, in the end. In most cases. There are still unforgivable acts, but none of those acts were ever yours.” She gestured to her guest chair. “Now, let’s see about that curse, yes?”

Narcissa nodded and gracefully sat in the chair Hermione had pointed to. Hermione pushed herself up out of her chair and grabbed her wand. She sighed and stretched a bit. Sitting in a chair all day hunched over paperwork was certainly not good for her posture. She was probably going to have to work on that, but that was neither here nor there.

She stood at Narcissa’s side. “I’m going to start with a few diagnostic spells to see how anchored it is and if there’s an easy thread of magic to unravel. If there is, this shouldn’t take too long to undo. If there isn't, it’s going to be a lot of trial and error. It shouldn’t ever be painful, but the pressure against your magic probably isn’t going to be the most pleasant thing you’ve ever felt.”

“Fair enough. I can’t imagine it will feel much different than when I was pregnant with Draco and his magic would press against mine when he was cranky and demanding something. Usually he wanted me to go somewhere quiet and not move so he could sleep uninterrupted.”

Hermione snorted. “Trouble even from the start. I can’t say I’m surprised.” She brought up her wand and started casting a few of the basic spells, frowning at their outputs. No immediately ready loose ends, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t one.

“I’m sure you caused your mother your own amount of grief, Miss Granger. Goodness knows you had to have considering I still very much remember your third year and Draco’s letter informing us that you had punched him. At the time I had half a mind to demand the Governors expel you.”

“At the time? That implies you feel differently now.”

“Well expulsion for a punch would’ve been a bit much. I am rather aware of how much of a spoiled little git he was at that age, but he is my baby boy. He can do no wrong. Though, thankfully, he’s outgrown that, and now I don’t have to look past him whining to his father about how his broom isn’t as fast as Harry Potter’s.”

“He’s decent now. We mostly get along, though he still can stick his foot right in his mouth at points.” The war had changed them all in good and bad ways, Draco had mostly come out on the good side. It had taken her all of their final year together at Hogwarts to see it after everything had died down, but they’d been tentatively friends by the end. Better friends now that he was hanging around Harry and Ginny so much. Hermione could definitely see where Narcissa had gotten the impression that he was with both of them romantically. She’d had the same vague suspicions honestly, but hadn’t pushed. Harry would tell her when all of them were ready if it was true. 

“As I’m sure we all do.”

Hermione arched an eyebrow at Narcissa. “I can’t imagine you’ve ever said the wrong thing in your entire life. You seem far too cunning for such mundane slips of the tongue.” She cast a few further spells, more complicated than the last, wand weaving more intricate patterns. Nothing just yet. Whoever had done the spell creation had known what they were doing then. This wasn’t something off the cuff. Something sat heavy in her stomach at the thought.

“I certainly have. I’m clever, not infallible. Especially with this curse on me. Unless I practically give myself a headache words just burst from me until the entire truth is out. Like last night when Anathema showed up for our weekly dinner at the manor and asked how I was and I replied that I would be doing much better if she hadn’t worn the dress she had on. It was rather sinful to look at and I’m only a woman.”

“Do you mind if I ask how that went for you?” Hermione carefully asked, curious, but definitely not wanting to overstep. Anathema Zabini and Narcissa Black as a couple? Good god, she was only a woman too, and that was far too much attractive woman in one sitting.

Narcissa flushed. “No, I find I actually don’t mind. I...I find myself wanting to scream from the rooftops about it that it finally happened. Something to be said about Gryffindor courage is at least you don’t sit around for years and years and make no moves just in case something might be ruined.”

Hermione laughed. “Tell that to all the people our Gryffindor courage screwed over.”

“Yes, well, there are exchanges.” She shrugged a delicate shoulder. “I didn’t want to ruin my friendship with Anathema. She’s...too important. But last night she looked at me and asked me if I found her attractive and I said yes. And then she stepped close enough to me that we were almost touching and asked if I ever wanted to do anything about that fact. I told her that I’ve wanted to kiss her since our third year. She asked me why I didn’t and well. For all the reasons I’ve said before and more I didn’t. Then of course later there was Lucius to consider and the fact that...well, what would it have gained us to be in love but to never be able to truly be together? Friendship was at least attainable. But then she asked me what I would do if I knew she’d felt the same way and well.” Her smile was soft. “I asked her out on a date and she said yes. And then kissed me. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time.”

“Well, I’m glad this curse isn’t all bad for the time being at least.”

Narcissa rolled her eyes, smile receding, looking more like her haughty self, but Hermione could still see the happiness in her eyes. “Yes, well, I’d still rather be rid of it before I confess all of my embarrassing secrets. I’d rather not have Anathema know that I used to draw pictures of us together on my study notes. I can stand to be in love, but never would I ever like to be seen as a lovesick fool. I have a reputation to uphold, Miss Granger.”

Hermione laughed again. “Well, here’s hoping I can help you uphold it.”

Narcissa looked up at her, smile trying to pull at the corners of her mouth again. “You are gorgeous when you smile. Making you laugh isn’t the worst thing to come out of this either.”

“So are you,” Hermione said, trying to fight the blush that wanted to paint her cheeks. “When you smile for real, anyway. The little sharp, dagger smile I’ve seen at events is rather terrifying.”

“As it’s meant to be.”

She finished the last of the diagnostics spells and sighed. Nothing usable. She was going to have to gently try and pick apart the magic strand by strand until it untangled. And considering how many threads of magic this spell weaved together, that was going to be an arduous task.

“Finishing diagnostics, I’d say you might have to keep that drawing story on lockdown for a few more days at the least. Whoever crafted this curse is good. If it isn’t the person who cast it on you, we’re going to have to figure out who did make the spell. They’re a little too good to just leave hanging in the wind. And apparently a little too morally grey too.”

“Well, I have no place to be Miss Granger and take all the time you need to rid me of this vile thing. I trust you to do your best.”

And perhaps words of trust from a woman who’d been on the wrong side of the war shouldn’t matter so much, but Hermione felt her magic tingle pleasantly at the words. Well, it was nice to be trusted after all.

“Alright then, brace yourself for some magical poking and prodding.”


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning Hermione sat doing her paperwork once again when one of her officers, Amelia, thankfully, popped her head in. “Uh, chief, there’s another woman out in the bullpen. I think she might be another one like Miss Black.”

Hermione immediately stood. “How long has she been out there.”

“Only a minute. When she started immediately telling the truth, I came to get you.”

She strode towards the door. “Who?” But a step later Hermione could see out into the bullpen and there was Violet Crabbe, standing tall, looking down her nose at everyone in the room, even as there was a genuine spark of fear in her eyes as she kept talking. Well then.

“Gentlemen,” she called to her officers, only raising her voice just slightly, but everyone turned towards her. “I think there might be a trend revealing itself here. Next time a person walks through the door that says they were cursed with a truth-telling spell, bring them directly to my office and do  _ not  _ ask them any questions. Do I make myself clear?” She got a lot of cross looks, but everyone nodded. “Good. Mrs. Crabbe, if you could come into my office we can get started on your incident report.”

The older woman nodded and strode forward, looking just the slightest bit relieved she wasn’t being left to the dogs. Hermione stepped back into her office and walked towards her chair. 

“Thank you, Amelia, you did the right thing. Keep an eye out just in case, would you?”

“Of course.” And then she slipped from the room and back to her desk.

The next second Mrs. Crabbe stepped in the doorway and through frowning at the door.

“You can close it if you would be more comfortable doing so,” Hermione offered.

The woman nodded and closed the door quickly but quietly before sinking down on one of the guest chairs. Hermione pulled the same form she’d filled out with Narcissa two days prior and set her quill on it. She frowned slightly at the woman in front of her. Truth spell or no, she had a feeling this was going to be a bit more painful of an interview to get through. She found that she actually had some vague liking of Narcissa, probably from the fact that she had saved one of her best friends six years ago, that she certainly didn’t have for Mrs. Crabbe. As far as she was aware the Crabbes were still blood purists, just much more quietly, especially since her husband was serving life in jail and her son well... But she would still treat the woman with respect even with those factors considered.

“So, Mrs. Crabbe what curse have you been afflicted with and when did you start noticing the symptoms?” Hermione asked, voice level and professional.

“It is a truth spell, though not one I’ve ever heard of, though I am no expert in the matter. My expertise shades towards,” she swallowed and visibly struggled with herself, “other divisions of magic.”

So she had figured out she could tell the truth without telling the whole truth under the spell. That did not bode well for the usefulness of the report. Hopefully, she would be as forthcoming as possible about the actual relevant events themselves if not the fact that she was an expert in dark magic and also homemaking charms, though she doubted anyone besides the relevant authorities knew about the latter. It was below a woman of her station to know such things.

“As for when it started, I believe it was five days ago, though I’m not entirely certain. I don’t have much occasion to speak anymore considering everything that has happened since the end of the war. But five days ago I was out in Hogsmeade seeing an acquaintance for lunch when I felt a bit of light tingling. I turned and looked around but I saw no one around me to cast a spell. They could’ve been under a disillusionment charm, but if they were, they weren’t close enough for my finite incantatum to work. Considering nothing went immediately awry I went home thinking nothing more on it. Any time I leave my manor I find myself on the end of a stinging jinx or two. I thought it was nothing more than that, be it a bit less harsh than usual. It wasn't until I was writing to my husband on Sunday and ended up saying more than I wished to that I realized something was amiss."

“Why not come in on Monday to report then?” Hermione asked.

“I thought it would dissipate and I’m not unskilled in curse-breaking myself, but whatever this is, it’s beyond my skills. I reached out to a few curse breakers but they refused to work with me. One of them told me it was what I deserved. So reporting is the only way I’ll get any help.”

Hermione frowned harder at that. Mrs. Crabbe’s story echoed Narcissa’s at most every turn. What sort of society ran off of the fact that in order to actually receive help they had to report a crime first? Everyone refusing to help out those who had been on the wrong side of the war would only serve to drive them further into radicalization. Not that Hermione blamed anyone who refused, but the ministry should set up some sort of program that would provide services to former death eaters if they could not secure them through private means. Both sides would hate it, but that was a better compromise than a dark wizard finding themself in Knockturn Alley getting into who knew what to fix their problems. She would have to bring up the point at her next meeting. She could feel the migraine that meeting would cause her already, but that wasn’t about to stop her from doing it. 

“That isn’t the first time I’ve heard that line of reasoning, nor is it the first time this week this curse has been reported. Quite frankly, Mrs. Crabbe, I’m sure this won’t be the last. Something about this screams that it will be a further trend. So, why don’t you tell me anyone you think that could’ve done this to you, that had the motive and means to do so, and I’ll set to work checking into them.”

Mrs. Crabbe nodded. “And then you’ll refer me to the curse breakers?”

“I’m doing the curse-breaking on this myself, actually. I’m better than the curse breakers on staff by half.”

“Never modest, are you, Miss Granger,” the woman sneered and then huffed. She obviously hadn’t meant for that to slip out but the truth spell had had its way with her.

“Why be modest when it’s true. Goodness knows men never are.” She shrugged. “But I’m already working with another victim of the spell. I can refer you to the curse breakers in the interim while I work on the problem, but I’ll most assuredly get to the solution first. I can owl you when I’ve figured out everything and we can set up a time to break the curse.”

“Good enough.”

Hermione bit the inside of her lip hard for a second before opening her mouth to continue. She wasn’t going to be snarky just because this woman was, no, no, no. No matter how damn tempting it was. “Now, about those you think might have had motive and means?”

Mrs. Crabbe sighed and set to talking, but it was plain as day on her face that she didn’t think it would do any good. Hermione would show her damn it.

  
  


By the time Narcissa walked in at ten past three, two more wives of former death eaters had walked into her office and give their statements, much the same as both Narcissa’s and Mrs. Crabbe’s. They didn’t see who cursed them, they hadn’t realized what it was at first anyway, they were used to being hit with spells in public, they had waited for it to fade, and the only reason they were coming forward now was because they wanted the damned spell off and ministry curse breakers seemed to be the only way forward for them for now. She had a list of people to check out as long as her arm, but she didn’t think that any of them would actually turn out anything. Considering how many people now were cursed, this was above some petty pureblood squabble and was leaning more towards someone who believed that all of the wives of the death eaters had gotten off too lightly and this was some sort of revenge. But why pick a truth-telling spell if it was revenge? She massaged her temples as a knock sounded on her door.

She looked up to see Narcissa at the door, smiling sympathetically. “Long day?”

“You could say that.” She gestured to the chair across from her. “You aren’t the only one who’s been hit with this curse. I spent most of my day in interviews with other victims.”

“Oh?” Narcissa asked. “I know I can’t ask you who, or at least I shouldn’t ask you who, but, were the circumstances similar?”

Hermione frowned and considered her options. She had been considering putting out a bulletin, but who even knew how many people paid attention to DMLE bulletins, especially those that she needed to reach. Word of mouth would probably be more beneficial, but considering they were all Slytherins, they weren’t exactly going to spread the news themselves. She huffed out a breath.

“Almost exactly the same. Someone is going after the wives of death eaters, maybe everyone who they think got off lightly. If you could, I’d warn your friends and Draco, and Draco should probably warn anyone he kept in touch with as well. It’s not...technically it’s a curse that can be lived with but no one should have to put up with always speaking the truth, especially not when they’re already on the outskirts of society and people are angry at them. Being forced to be truthful could get them hurt.” 

“To be honest, Miss Granger, I don’t much associate with my former circle. But it’s easy enough to start a rumor flying among them. I can send a few letters in the right direction and try to warn people away from stepping out to Diagon.” Her face paled slightly. “Do you think Anathema is in danger?”

“She wasn’t ever married to a death eater, right? Not in any way even tangentially involved?”

Narcissa shook her head. “Not surprisingly he wasn’t just a blood supremacist but almost a bit of a closet racist. Anathema had him pegged for what he was long before anyone else from the upper crust did.”

“The -ists tend to run in multiples in both social circles and singular people.” She considered for a moment. “I would say she’d probably be ok based on the people I’ve seen today, whoever is casting the curse seems to be focused on people who were implicated in the war, but I would still tell her to be careful just in case they decide that all Slytherins need to tell the truth.”

She pushed up from her seat and grabbed her wand. She felt mentally exhausted and didn’t really have much in the tank to poke at the curse, but she wasn’t about to leave it for a day either just because she was tired. Narcissa deserved to have her life back.

“How has your day been?” She asked conversationally, hoping that that was broad enough that she didn’t have to venture into something she didn’t want to talk about. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, of course,” she added just in case.

“No, actually I, well, I want to talk about the last twenty-four hours.” Her smile was small and shy and Hermione was sure that no one had seen such an expression on the woman’s face in literally years, since she was a girl probably. “A side effect of no longer talking to those who’ve made up my social circles for years...well, I have no one to tell about how things are going with Anathema and I admit I’m very excited.” She scrunched her nose. “Not that I would really talk to them about all that was happening or even tell them how excited I am by these changes, but at least I could say  _ something. _ ” She looked up at Hermione. “But I find that you’re a better audience anyway. I...I trust you, I think. You’re an honorable woman, Miss Granger, you wouldn’t use such a thing as new love against a person.”

Hermione’s hand dropped to Narcissa’s shoulder and squeezed for half a second before going back to trying to pull apart strands of magic. “Of course I wouldn’t, Miss Black. Everyone deserves happiness, and that means not using what makes them happy against them.”

Narcissa snorted. “Yes, well, not in elite society, but. I think I’ve had more than enough of that for the rest of my life. So no real loss.” She sat up a bit straighter, looking eager. “Anathema and I went out on our first date last night. We went to the only Italian place that Anathema actually likes. She says the other ones are from tourists that never quite get the flavor right, but La Vecchia Capra actually tastes like a Nonna’s cooking, as all Italian food should.” She smiled, eyes lighting up. “It’s just outside of wizarding London, actually. I don’t think Anathema and I managed to blend in at all, I didn’t know I needed to, she didn’t tell me ahead of time that we weren’t staying in the wizarding world, and Anathema I don’t think cares. She just leaned over to me and said they were all staring because of how beautiful I was.” 

She paused and swallowed, clearly thinking about the words that the curse was trying to make her speak next. Hermione just worked quietly and let her puzzle out if she wanted to continue speaking or not. She was in no rush. In fact, she was in the middle of a knot of magic so tangled she wasn’t sure if she was going to hear Narcissa if she continued speaking. They sat in relatively comfortable silence for a long while, minutes slipping by them quickly as Hermione focused.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy as I was in that moment, as happy as I still am even now,” she continued quietly, looking away from Hermione in her moment of true vulnerability. When was the last time this woman was vulnerable like this? Hermione stopped what she was doing to look at the other woman. In a way, she felt privileged that Narcissa was trusting her this much. “I’ve never...I’ve never truly been in love, or at least...I’ve never acted on it. I think I’ve loved Anathema for longer than I’ve known. And now...going out on a date with her, having her in a way that I’ve denied myself for so long? Being honestly flirted with? Getting a true date? It was...it was so much better than I imagined. We ate together and laughed and it felt much like every other meal we’ve had together over the years but she never let go of my hand and I didn’t want her to. It’s a good thing both of us are ambidextrous.” She laughed quietly. “And then at the end of the night, she escorted me home to the door and kissed me like a true first date. I had thought we might just fall in bed together right then and there, but she told me that such things were for at minimum the third date with that damnably attractive smirk of hers, and then she apparated off. Such liaisons might be third date material, but considering our lives together, I think we’re long past that. And just because such things are third date material doesn’t mean that I didn’t march straight up to my bedroom and imagine her in between my thighs as I came with her name on my lips.”

Hermione ignored that last bit as the woman turned beet red. She definitely hadn’t meant to admit that, but honestly, if she’d been in the same situation, she would’ve done the same thing. Anathema Zabini was a strikingly beautiful woman. To know her as Narcissa must after being her friend for so long and now her girlfriend? That certainly would’ve been too much for Hermione to bear without at least an orgasm to take the edge off. 

“It sounds like a wonderful date,” Hermione said instead. 

“It was. We have another arranged for tomorrow night.”

Hermione smirked at the older woman. “If third dates are the territory of sex, you should bargain with Anathema that second dates are for everything but the final act.”

Narcissa’s eyes sparked with fire as she snapped around to look at Hermione again. “Now that is a thought worthy of a Slytherin, Miss Granger.”

She snorted. “I’ll take that as the compliment it was meant as, instead of puffing up with Gryffindor indignation.”

“We all seem to have a bit of the other houses in us, no matter what.” She stuck her tongue out and Hermione felt a flash of heat roll through her, but instantly dismissed that. She was just tired and magically strained. “Though I’ll be damned if I admit to anything have to do with Hufflepuff.”

Hermione laughed hard enough to drop the strands of magic she was holding, but Narcissa didn’t seem to be annoyed with her. If anything she seemed pleased with herself that she had gotten Hermione to laugh.

“You’re beautiful when you laugh like that. In fact, Miss Granger, you’re a beautiful person inside and out in general. I know I’ve said as such before, but it only becomes more true with time. This curse has been annoying, but it brought me the relationship I truly wanted with Anathema and perhaps it might yet bring me a friendship with you, so I don’t regret being cursed.”

“Well, if we’re to be friends you might as well call me Hermione. I think you’ve earned it based on the amount of times you’ve called me beautiful anyway.”

“Then I must be Narcissa.”

“Seems fair enough.” She readied her wand again. “Now, tell me of the food at this Italian place, I might just have to go visit myself.”


	4. Chapter 4

Friday was usually everyone’s favorite day, the weekend would start just as soon as the clock struck five, at least for those who weren’t on weekend rotation. Hermione, however, rather hated Fridays. Mostly because Fridays were when everyone seemed to get their collective shit together and file their paperwork that all then had to come to her to sign off on it before it could be filed for good. She groaned and thumped her forehead down on a rather large stack of forms. At least it was four in the afternoon, the flow would be slowing down in the next few minutes, and then she could maybe catch up a bit and only do a half-day tomorrow of paperwork. She still had a full day no matter what to run all the leads she had gotten from the other death eater wives. The total was up to ten admitted cases now. She had a feeling there were more that just hadn’t come forward yet, and it seemed that whoever was doing the cursing wasn’t slowing down. The earliest case was a week and a half ago, the latest the day before. It seemed to mostly average one a day, which considering how complicated the spell was, wasn’t surprising. It would take a decent portion of magic to cast and leave the caster fairly tired.

Just like she was fairly tired. The sooner she solved this case the better. She groaned and pushed herself up. At least there was no standing appointment with Narcissa since she had her date with Anathema and had a slew of new orders from her shop to get through. She’d come tomorrow morning instead and then if she didn’t get some sort of rest Sunday, well, Hermione might just keel over from a caffeine overdose. So it would be Monday after that. Just a mountain of paperwork between her and some decent amount of sleep. It was fine.

She worked into the evening. The difference between before five p.m. and after was rather astonishing. It was as if all the noise in the office suddenly vanished. Oh, she knew a few people were still out there on the night shift or finishing up, but there was nowhere near the level of noise. Honestly, it was a relief until she heard a familiar voice.

“This way darling, if I know Hermione Granger she’ll still be at work on a Friday evening and she’ll want to hear it while it’s fresh.” 

Hermione looked up, watching her door. That sounded like Narcissa, but it was, she turned to look at her clock, almost nine at night now. Her date had been at seven. What in the world was she doing here, and who was she speaking to?

She didn’t have to wonder long, Narcissa appeared in the doorway and smiled. “I thought so. Good evening, Hermione, I would apologize for interrupting but.” She stepped forward and Anathema Zabini came with her.

“Oh my, Narcissa you were right, she has gotten even prettier since the war. I would die for a piece of that.” She smirked and looked Hermione up and down with hungry, dark brown eyes, white smile especially bright against her dark brown skin and the bright red lipstick she had on. Hermione swallowed hard. Merlin, the woman was even more a vision up close. And she was definitely checking her out? In front of Narcissa? What?

Her eyes flicked to Narcissa who was  _ nodding _ of all things? What in the name of Godric Gryffindor did  _ that _ mean? It wasn’t that late. She shouldn’t be imagining things yet. So this had to be real. But.

“Hello, Lady Zabini, nice to see you again.” She’d only really met the woman in passing at Hogwarts Graduation and during the death eater trials. She’d had some interesting information on where Voldemort had gotten funding, with documents to prove it. Considering now that she knew Anathema had a rather large streak of distaste for Voldemort and his cronies, that made more sense now than it had then. 

“Oh, I do say so.” She laid a hand on Narcissa’s arm to gently squeeze past her, giving her a lovestruck smile as she did. She stopped in front of Hermione’s desk and offered a delicate hand. 

Hermione reached out and took it, blinking at the spark of magic that played across her skin at the touch. Why had that happened? She stared at the woman’s very soft hand for a moment more than polite before shaking it firmly and letting go, missing the warmth of it almost immediately. She looked back up to see Anathema looking at her, hunger shifted into something more quietly contemplative, a look that was laced with something Hermione couldn’t quite place, but when Anathema turned to look at Narcissa, the other woman understood perfectly, arching an eyebrow, but nodding just slightly. What in the world did it all mean? Why were they here anyway?

Anathema turned back to her. “Now, Miss Granger, you’ve been taking such good care of my bella amore, trying to break this...well, I would normally say terrible curse, but it has granted me many favors.” She smiled widely. “I appreciate it greatly, especially since it seems that I’m now in need of your services myself. While telling Narcissa just how much I truly love her is lovely, perhaps saving a bit for later might be good, no?”

“Why,” Narcissa drawled behind them, “I’ve very much already put everything out on the table.”

She turned and grabbed Narcissa’s hands in a gentle grip. “Bella mia, it’s about the romance of it all. So when I propose to you I have something beautiful and unheard for you to hear as I present the ring to you that you’ll remember for the rest of our lives.” She paused. “And perhaps...being vulnerable is hard. You’ve said so yourself. And this is so new, despite the fact that I know this will last, I needed the time to be comfortable. I don’t regret anything I’ve said, I just. Well, perhaps it is good that it isn’t very noticeable when I blush.”

Narcissa pulled one hand away to brush against Anathema’s cheekbone. “I always know. You’ve blushing right now. Rather a lot.”

Anathema groaned and lowered her forehead onto Narcissa’s shoulder despite the fact that she was the taller of the two. Hermione found her heart squeezing in her chest. It was an adorable scene. They were rather obviously a perfect couple. That sent a pang of sadness through her, especially with the remnants of that zing of magic earlier still on her skin. Ugh, she needed to solve this case just to figure out what in the world was going on with her too.

“You know me too well, my love,” Anathema said, lingering in Narcissa’s hold for another second before standing again and turned back to Hermione, hands coming up to fix the neatly tamed riot of curls draping over her forehead, sweeping to the side, a few draping over her left eye. The rather striking hairstyle suited her, though practical in a sense, neat box braids running up her head only to dramatically expand to show off the natural texture of her hair, it was the style of a beautiful woman, but one that had lived through two wars. And Hermione wanted nothing more than to have her face buried in Anathema’s shoulder and feel those curls tickling the skin of her neck.

Hermione blinked hard at that. Maybe she was more tired than she thought. Perhaps she should have an early night after all. Goodness knew her body would probably thank her. 

She snapped back into the moment and allowed herself to actually  _ think  _ about the words Anathema had said. “Wait, you’ve been cursed as well?” Fuck, there went her theory that Anathema was safe because she hadn’t been involved in the war.

“Yes, cara, and I caught a glimpse of someone I think might have done it as we were coming out of the restaurant this evening. Narcissa rushed me straight here when our outing for gelato turned into a rather stunning confessional of my feelings for her and it was clear I couldn’t stop.”

Narcissa hummed. “Turns out I’m familiar and I know roundabout what my face looks like when I do go on more than I mean to.”

Hermione immediately sat down and took out an incident report form, now always close at hand since the first few women had come in. “Tell me everything.”

Anathema and Narcissa sank down in the guest chairs together, moving almost in sync. Anathema reached out for Narcissa’s hand, and the other woman met her halfway, even without looking. They were so very connected and here Hermione was having stupidly tired thoughts about burying her face in Anathema’s neck. Geesh, what was she, some out of control man? There were other much more important things to do, obviously. She should focus on those.

“We were coming out of Sartagine after dinner and it was wonderful as always, though made better by the company kept.” She smiled over at Narcissa. “We stepped outside and I felt a spell hit me and then a tingling sensation. I looked in the direction of where the spell seemed to have come from and there was a man walking off quickly. He was fading in and out of sight like he was trying to keep up a disillusionment spell but didn’t quite have the energy to do it. I only got a half a glimpse of his face when he turned it to look across the street. But he had dark golden hair and his magic, what I could feel of it at that distance, he felt a bit older than Narcissa and I, five to ten years, perhaps? Also, a bit on the taller side, surely above 180 centimeters, I believe from seeing him walk by others, but not ridiculously tall, perhaps 188 at most. His clothes looked to be rather middle of the road, not expensive or cheap, nothing truly remarkable about them. They looked like standard Ministry worker robes if anything. That was about as much as I could register before he slipped into an alley and disappeared for good.”

Hermione nodded and watched her quill write everything down. Well. It wasn’t a great deal to go on, there were a lot of wizards that fit the qualifications of somewhere between 49 and 54 and was over six foot with blonde hair. Though if Anathema had gotten a reading on his magic, that was a more accurate range of age than just a glimpse of his face would give. Considering most witches and wizards looked much the same between their mid-twenties and mid-seventies with only subtle signs of aging between, well, it was rather hard to know the difference visually. But magic aged in predictable patterns even across different people. And that description scrapped almost all of the suspects she’d been given across all the women that had come in to report being cursed. She only had a handful to check out now.

“From the magic, you’re sure it was a man?” Hermione asked.

“Yes, very sure. A very angry man at that, righteously so. I could feel it even from a block away.”

Hermione hummed, righteously angry, huh. Well, that certainly did track with the fact that he was cursing death eater wives. She wasn’t surprised he found himself righteous in this pursuit. But if he was angry enough to slip up to be seen, he would make more mistakes. She just hoped that she was somewhere close enough to take advantage. And in the meantime, if he looked like a standard ministry worker, well, she could start checking into people at the ministry to see if anyone stood out as a possible suspect. Water cooler talk was mostly useless gossip, but useless gossip right now might actually prove useful. Someone angry enough to go about cursing people definitely hadn’t stayed quiet before this.

“Well, then,” Hermione said, “you went to get gelato after that?”

Anathema nodded. “When nothing happened I thought it was just a fluke, or perhaps since the man didn’t have enough magic for a simple disillusionment spell, that whatever was meant to happen didn’t, until we sat down with our dessert and Narcissa asked me a question about an old flame in jest and I couldn’t stop talking about her.” 

She scrunched up her face and Hermione felt her lips twitching up in a smile. It was a cute expression. She glanced at Narcissa who had the same look on her face, adoring, hand that wasn’t holding Anathema’s twitching like she wanted to reach out and smooth the lines on her face. She smiled in earnest at that picture. Merlin, they were adorable together. She couldn’t even imagine trying to interrupt such a thing.

But was it interrupting if they both wanted her to?

“I don’t like talking about her, Narcissa knows this, so the fact that I couldn’t  _ stop _ , well, we were here within the next five minutes.” She frowned slightly. “And we left such good gelato behind. A shame.”

Narcissa rolled her eyes. “Your priorities always have needed some work, darling.”

“Really? My priority has always been you and Blaise, bella amore, my family. Does that really need work?” Anathema teased.

The blonde woman huffed. “Fine, fine, those priorities don’t need shifted, but others do. You know this.”

Anathema waved her off with her free hand. “Yes, yes, so you’ve said since Hogwarts. And yet I am still a rich woman with all my needs taken care of and more. Especially now that I have you, bella mia.”

“You’re always going to turn these things right back on me, aren’t you?” Narcissa smiled and brought their joined hands, laying a gentle kiss on soft, dark skin.

Hermione felt as if they’d rather forgotten she was in the room watching, as they looked at each other, soft, open, vulnerable. She didn’t think they’d let themselves be this open if they did remember she was only three feet or so away in a desk chair. That just wasn’t the Slytherin way to do things. But then they turned back towards Hermione and their expressions didn’t change. Did they really feel that safe around her? Why? What had she really done to earn such trust?

“You see what I have to put up with now,” Narcissa said in a rather put upon voice, ruined by the fact that she was smiling. She looked beautiful smiling, but this, now? Holding Anathema’s hand and obviously totally in love? Oh, she took Hermione’s breath away.

“A tragedy,” Hermione said, playing along after a second’s pause to gather herself. “This does help though. It’s the first actually decent lead in the case. I’ll do some digging around, see if I can find anyone who fits the description and has been vocal about how light the punishment of everyone involved in the war was. I think starting here within the ministry might not be a bad idea, narrows the focus to something manageable while covering a decent amount of ground. And to be honest...with the amount of skill it would've taken to craft the curse, I’d be surprised if whoever this man is, isn’t at least in some way associated with the ministry. Most powerful witches and wizards end up here for something or another a few times a year at the very least.” And ministry clearance meant records she could pull easily. “Anything else you think is relevant?”

Anathema shook her head. “No, that is all I remember.”

“Ok then. Good. I’ll start searching tomorrow and maybe, just maybe, we’ll find something.” She smiled at the two of them. “And you two are free to go back to actually enjoying your evening.”

“Who says we didn’t enjoy spending time with you, Hermione?” Narcissa asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Yes, cara, you’re definitely someone worth spending time with, I think.” Anathema glanced at Narcissa. “In fact, if it would help, I could come with Narcissa to your standing appointments to try and break the curse, no?”

“I wouldn’t mind spending more time with you,” Narcissa said immediately and then shrugged in that same ‘curse made me admit that but oh well’ way Hermione had gotten used to.

“Nor I with you.” 

Hermione couldn’t really say no to that. Well, she could, but she didn’t want to. And the thought of having both of them in her office on a regular basis appealed to her too. But since she wasn’t under a truth spell, she wasn’t about to  _ say _ that. She would just have to come up with some plausible sounding reason as to why she needed both of them. Or, since Anathema had suggested it, she could just say yes. That was probably safer.

“I don’t see why not. If anything it might be enlightening to see if he’s changed the curse at all between Narcissa and you.”

Anathema stood up, pulling Narcissa up gently with their joined hands. “Excellent. Then we will see you tomorrow after lunch, yes?”

Hermione nodded. 

“Wonderful. I hope you have a good rest of your evening, Hermione. You should get some sleep. It is already fairly late. Have you eaten dinner? I find I worry about you working yourself into an early grave more and more often these days.”

“I ordered takeaway a couple hours ago, no need to worry. As for sleep?” She shrugged. “Life of a department head is sleep deprivation. I’ll be fine.”

Anathema and Narcissa looked at each other and whatever they were trying to communicate went far above Hermione’s head. She should probably be worried about that, but she really wasn’t. If they had wanted to do anything untoward, that ship had long past, there had been ample opportunity and yet here she still was. 

“Yes, I suppose you would live, but you do need to be in top shape for curse-breaking work yes?” Narcissa turned back to her and arched an eyebrow.

“I, uh, well, it would help certainly,” Hermione stuttered out.

“And if you are tired and make a mistake it could hurt, Narcissa, yes?” Anathema asked.

“Well, yes, but I would never do anything if I was  _ that  _ tired. I always triple check my work even when a bit sleepy.”

“Better safe than sorry with my bella amore, don’t you agree? Narcissa said that you consider her a friend now, and friends protect each other.” She leveled dark eyes on Hermione. “And this protects both you and her. Paperwork can wait until after you’ve had a good night’s sleep.”

Hermione blinked but didn’t think to argue farther than that. Anathema’s eyes said she wouldn’t get far anyway. And damn it all if that didn’t bring back some inappropriate thoughts. “Ok, ok, ok, fine, I’ll file this and complete the thing I was working on when you both arrived, and then I’ll go home and get some sleep, ok?”

Both of them shifted back into a happier mood the next instant. “Of course,” Narcissa said. “We just want to make sure you’re well, darling.”

Hermione snorted quietly. Slytherins. Didn’t make friends easily, but when they did, oh when they did. “I am an adult you know. I can and have been taking care of myself for a bit.” She sighed and conceded with her next breath. “But it is nice to have a reminder or two. This isn’t an easy job and I am prone to working too late. It’s important work.” And it was even if having these two women in her office made her want to forget all of that and just skive off somewhere to do something rather foolish. Definitely the impulse that had gotten her sorted into Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw.

“Of course it is,” Anathema said. “And of course as a lovely little Gryffindor, you’ll keep your word and go home as you said, yes?”

“Yes,” Hermione agreed. The guilt would eat at her if she made a promise and broke it, even one as simple as just going home and going to sleep. Also, really, she  _ wanted  _ to go to bed so it wasn’t a hard promise to keep. What with how her brain had been reacting all night she obviously needed it.

“Wonderful.” She turned back to Narcissa. “Perhaps we should put that bit of information that Miss Granger told you about second dates to use, cara mia?”

Narcissa blushed but nodded. “Oh, I think I would like that.”

They bid her an absent farewell and left wrapped up in each other. Hermione groaned and set her head on her desk again. Merlin, paperwork was going to take so much longer now that all she could think about was Anathema and Narcissa getting up to some heavy petting. Dear god, they’d be heartbreakingly beautiful together. She groaned louder and tried to focus on the last details of Anathema’s report instead.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glad y'all are liking this so far! lolol considering I had to make the ot3 tag myself it's nice to see people liking the new. Anathema Zabini is just *screams in gay*

Monday morning found her in her office, more rested than she had been in ages, powering through paperwork faster than she had in weeks. So Anathema and Narcissa had had a point. She wasn’t going to let them know that. If you gave a Slytherin an inch they would definitely take a mile. Like Draco their eighth year when allowing him to set his things down on her bench in potions for a second had led to them working together for the rest of the year after he went off to talk to Blaise for a moment and then sat back down at her table despite there being empty seats elsewhere. Not that she regretted that now, considering they made decent friends and he’d definitely known what he was doing in potions, but she would’ve never if she had known what would happen next. Setting things down for a second was  _ not  _ partnering with her. If she let Narcissa and Anathema know that they were right? She could only imagine where that would lead her.

A knock on her door sounded and she looked up to see the women in question, smiling at her. “Morning, Hermione,” Narcissa said, sweeping in and into the chair she’d occupied every time for these sessions.

“Yes, good morning, cara.” Anathema smirked as she took the other chair. “You’re looking well rested.”

She just hummed noncommittally. Nope, she wasn’t confirming that after she’d offhandedly said she was going to take Sunday off for sure and they had answered with threats of gently hexing her office to make sure she did so. Nope. Nope. Nope. If they actually had hexed her office, she wasn’t about to encourage that again.

“How was the rest of your weekend?” She asked instead. 

Anathema sighed and looked suitably lovestruck. “Narcissa took us to her favorite little cottage on the coast. An old Black family property, yes, bella mia?”

Narcissa nodded. “My favorite one, really, though it is a close tie between the cottage and the beach house on the Riviera.”

“Oh, I don’t think I’ve been to that one.” She perked up at the thought, face lighting up with obvious plans for mischief. 

“You haven’t, most of the time it’s where Lucius housed his lovers, out of the way, and not somewhere someone would look for a Malfoy lover. I’ve only been a handful of times since I inherited it. In the gaps between relationships mostly, though a time or two to meet some of Lucius’s more serious lovers.” Her face scrunched a bit. “Lucius’s taste in men has never really improved. I was never impressed.”

“You gave him a beach house to house lovers in but had nothing of the sort yourself? You were too generous, bella amore.”

Honestly, Hermione had to agree with Anathema. How many properties did the Malfoys and Blacks own between them? Lucius could’ve found somewhere else to hide a lover.

“He did supply me a house on the Spanish coast, if I wanted the same arrangement, but.” She shook her head and reached for Anathema’s hand. “Who would I put there, if not you? No one other than you deserves it. It has always been you. None of the flings that lasted less than a month has ever changed that.”

“I’m the one who’s supposed to be an incurable romantic, I’m the Italian one, amore. You’re very much stealing my thunder here.” 

Hermione snickered quietly but neither of the women seemed to notice, wrapped up in each other as they were.

“I think you have some ground to lose from last night. Last night was everything I could have dreamed of and more.” Narcissa’s cheeks were deep red and Hermione felt her eyebrows rising. They’d had their third date then. Not that Hermione had thought it would go any differently, considering how long they’d waited, but.

“Mmm, yes, I think we should repeat last night all over the beach house as well. Reclaim it with memories of our own, yes?” Anathema licked her lips, looking hungrily at Narcissa. “Perhaps even better if there was a third to help. I assume the beach house has a great many more rooms than the cottage.” Her eyes darted to Hermione and she froze in place. Anathema couldn’t mean her. There was no way.

“A third wouldn’t be a bad idea, but I’m not interested in any more flings, Anathema.”

Hermione had more than a bit of a feeling this was all going above her head. Were they still talking about her?

“Then we find someone who fits both of us. It is as simple as that.”

Narcissa snorted. “I don’t think that’s anywhere near simple, but.” Her eyes turned towards Hermione again. “It might be possible someday.” She cleared her throat. “But safe to say, our weekend was good, Hermione. Very good.”

“Considering you couldn’t walk this morning, I would say so.” Anathema cackled, continuing even when Narcissa turned to glare at her. 

Hermione swallowed hard. She was not going to imagine what they’d gotten up to last night that had left Narcissa unable to walk. She just wasn’t going to do it. Nope. Wasn’t going to imagine that she was that third person they’d just been talking about. Nothing to see there, time for her to move along.

She stood up and grabbed her wand. There was a tried and true method to get her mind off of something she didn’t want to think about and it was work. Always definitely work. She stepped up beside Narcissa who was still blushing prettily and damn it being this close, close enough to smell her delicate perfume, gardenias and orange blossom today, wasn’t actually helping. She swallowed again and held up her wand. One deep breath, two, and she cast to make the magic of the curse visible to her eyes. She’d made some progress in the few days she’d worked but it was very slow going. She didn’t think she was even a quarter of the way into breaking the spell. That was fine. As long as she did it the right way she could do it faster next time. 

“How does the curse feel, any different?” Hermione asked, diving into her untangling.

“No, the compulsion is still the same as it ever was. I don’t notice any difference in how hard I have to concentrate to choose my words carefully either,” Narcissa replied.

Hermione sighed. “I didn’t think so, but checking to see just in case. It’s a complex spell. I’d be surprised if it didn’t take years to develop.” She’d also be surprised if something this complicated didn’t have at least one fail safe as most complex curses did. She’d been on the lookout for one so she could disarm it carefully, but nothing had looked suspicious as of yet.

“Are there lists of people who are accomplished in spellcraft?” Anathema asked sitting forward, watching Hermione work intently. 

“There’s not really a list as such, but on every ministry employee’s intake exam there’s a score for spellcraft. They give you a simple spell and you’re told to alter it however you want. How long it takes you and how complicated the modification is are the scoring criteria.” She’d gotten a rather high score in that category, but it wasn’t really a surprise what with how much she’d had to modify spells when they were on the run. “If I cross-reference that with the description you gave me Saturday it could narrow down the list of suspects, but honestly, that only works if whoever is casting this spell actually made it themselves and didn’t pay for someone else to craft it.”

She bit her lip, working through a particularly tough tangle. The magic was starting to get darker, thicker, she was getting close to something. Maybe an end finally? Or at least the heart of the curse. Either way, it was a good sign. 

“Do you think the man did craft it himself?” Anathema asked.

Hermione felt Narcissa stiffen beside her. “Are you ok, Narcissa?” She stopped her wand work immediately, holding things just so, afraid to move if something indeed had gone wrong.

“Fine,” Narcissa said, relaxing again. “It just pressed on my magic harder than usual.”

Hermione didn’t trust that. If she went forward anymore it would probably do something even worse. Well, perhaps she had found that fail-safe after all, though it didn’t look like it magically. It looked like a regular part of the magic making up the spell. But maybe that was half of the trick, and if it was, that was clever.

And very, very vindictive. 

“I think he might’ve, if this is anything to go by.” Hermione carefully started to put everything back into a place that would leave the spell stable, but after a few seconds Narcissa stiffened again and this time cried out. In a second Anathema was kneeling before Narcissa, hands on hers, dark brown eyes looking up at pained light blue. 

“Bella amore? What’s happening.”

“Hurts, hurts a lot. Pulling on my magic, trying to drain it. Fighting it. Hurts.”

“Fuck,” Hermione said, under her breath. The spell was still too unwound to stop, but obviously trying to put it back to a place where it would be stable wasn’t helping Narcissa at all. Fuck, what was she supposed to do? Her fingers flew, gripping onto magic and following instinct. If going backward was hurting, perhaps going forwards would negate whatever the hell was going on. She moved quickly, untying and untangling, holding her breath all the while, listening to Narcissa whimper and moan and it was tearing her apart. She bit her lip hard enough for blood to pool in her mouth until finally the last strand came free and fell away and Narcissa finally stopped making pained noises. 

And then Hermione watched as the magical strands that had fallen away filled in yet again. Well hell. That had definitely been a fail-safe and now Hermione was back at square one and somehow she was going to have to figure out a different way to untangle the magic the next time around. 

She glanced down to Anathema who was still looking at Narcissa, worried. “Narcissa?” she asked, crouching down to look at her face, now drawn and pale. She felt one of Anathema’s hands on her hers and noticed that her hands were shaking like leaves in the wind. She looked at the other woman, looked back at dark skin on top of hers and felt just a bit of calm return to her. But Narcissa wasn’t answering, and that wasn’t a good sign.

“Anathema, she’s not ok, is she?” Hermione asked as she calmed down enough to realize that some of the trembling she’d felt wasn’t just her own, but Narcissa’s.

“No, the more pain she’s in the quieter she gets.” She looked grim. “She didn’t even scream when she had Draco. Now myself and Blaise? I don’t think anyone on that floor of the ward didn’t know what was going on.”

Hermione swallowed hard. What to do. A new curse with an unknown defense mechanism, maybe dark magic in origin. Where should she take Narcissa? Who would be the most likely to be able to heal her?

“I know where we need to take her, but I’m not sure she’ll like it when she isn’t in pain.” She drew a memory out of her head with the tip of her wand and held it out to Anathema who took it carefully, placing it inside her own head and then looking up at Hermione with curious eyes. “I’ll need to side along Narcissa there. I have access to the wards and can apparate inside where Narcissa will be treated. The memory I gave you is the apparition point for guests. When I can I’ll come to let you into the house proper. It might be a few minutes, but I’m not going to leave you out there. I know you’ll want to be by her side.” She pulled in a deep breath, feeling a bit sick to her stomach. This was all her fall assuredly but she couldn’t fall apart right now with that thought. She had to get Narcissa to the healer and then she could think about what had gone wrong and how to never repeat the same mistake again. 

“Narcissa, I’m going to have to lift you out of the chair. I’m not sure if that will hurt you more, but we have to, to be able to get where we’re going.” She cast a quick levitation spell, hoping that it wouldn’t jostle the woman much, but she went visibly paler. She held onto the other woman and glanced back at Anathema. “See you in a minute?” And then she turned on her heel and appeared in a familiar living room.

“Andy!” She yelled, praying the woman was home. She usually was, home with Teddy, taking care of him, or at least out in the backyard tending the potion ingredient garden, if not in the house proper.

A crack and the older woman was by her side in a second, looking a bit harried. “What’s wrong?” And it was rather obvious the second she spotted just who Hermione was carrying in her arms. “What happened?” Her eyes were wide and there was just a second’s hesitation. She’d heard from the other woman that the sisters had tried to make up after the war, but there had been too much fresh bad blood between them to really go anywhere. Hermione hadn’t quite understood at the time why Andy had tried to force it right after losing both her husband and her daughter, but now...now she understood. Narcissa and Teddy were the only blood she had left.

“She’s under a new curse, something that makes her tell the truth, she came to me last week to report it. I’ve been working on trying to break it since it’s new and--”

“And the ministry curse breakers wouldn’t know a damned thing about how to try and break something new,” Andy finished for her. “You hit a fail safe?”

Hermione nodded. “It didn’t look like one, not even after it tripped.”

“Impressive bit of magic then. Did she tell you what it’s trying to do to her?”

“She said something about it trying to drain her magic, but after that she’s been dead silent.”

Andy drew in a slow breath. “Ok then. She’s in a great amount of pain. Upstairs, now.”

“She’s...Anathema was with us. She should be outside. She’ll want to be here,” Hermione said, even as she was walking towards the door to the room, following Andy’s directions.

“I’ll let her in. Go. She’ll be more comfortable laying down without any other magic touching her.” She bustled off, not even questioning just why Anathema had been there or why she would want to be there as her friend was healed. Though, perhaps, if Narcissa had wanted to kiss Anathema since their third year, maybe Andy knew why. Sisters were observant after all.

She hurried upstairs and set Narcissa down on the bed and lifted her levitation spell. The older witch relaxed fractionally as the spell lifted. Hermione swallowed hard, looking away from the obvious pain the other woman was in. Her face was drawn and pinched and her entire body was tense. Fuck, how could she have missed the trap? 

“I’m sorry,” Hermione whispered. “I’ll go. I shouldn’t be here. It’s my fault.” She turned to leave but a hand grabbed her robes and tugged gently. She looked back to find Narcissa’s hand gripping her for dear life. A stiff shake of her head followed. “You want me to stay?”

Narcissa didn’t speak or move, but kept gripping onto her robes.

“Ok. I’ll stay.” And then the hand dropped back to the bed. 

The next second Andy was there, levitating all her healer supplies behind her, Anathema bringing up the rear.

“If both of you are going to be in here, then you’ll be helping, otherwise, out.”

Neither of them left. Anathema inched closer to Hermione’s side and took her hand again and Hermione sighed at the grounding weight of the woman’s hand in hers. 

“What do you need?” Hermione asked.

“Quiet for now, and then once I figure out what the hell this curse is doing to her, I’ll let you know.” Andy brandished her wand and set to work quickly, diagnostic spells flashing up left right and center. 

Hermione gripped Anathema’s hand a bit harder. As with just about any sort of magic, she had a passing familiarity with healing magic, and the readouts from Narcissa weren’t looking the greatest. Her blood pressure was sky high, though considering how much pain she was in that wasn’t out of the ordinary, and her magic reserves were draining fast. Whoever had made this curse had not wanted it to be broken, possibly ever. A permanent truth-telling curse. Merlin, what a nightmare. If this man didn’t get at least ten years in Azkaban she’d have the Wizengamot’s heads. All of them. 

“Anathema,” Andy said after the last spell faded. “Narcissa’s magic will accept yours, yes?”

“Very much so especially now that we’re lovers.” She sighed. “She definitely didn’t want me to tell you that, though, but I’m also afflicted with the same curse so I don’t have much of a choice at times.” 

Especially not now when she was wholly focused on taking care of her girlfriend. 

“Even better then. She’s fighting to keep the fail-safe from draining her completely but it’s a nasty version of a spell I’ve seen before. Try to give her some of your reserves, that should help sustain her while I set the counter jinx.”

Anathema stepped forward and took Narcissa’s hand, a second later and their joined hands were glowing a soft gold. Hermione was so tempted to step forward and help, but she knew Andy would probably have another task for her.

“Hermione you’re familiar with Hiriam’s counters, right?” Andy said, wand already weaving tight patterns in the air above Narcissa’s body.

“Yes.”

“Number four, if you please, until I say stop.”

Hermione’s wand was out in an instant and she put everything she had into the counter spell she was weaving, over and over again, watching Narcissa from the corner of her eye as she started to gain back a bit of color. Her body relaxed more into the bed and Hermione’s heart started to beat again. What they were doing was helping. Oh, thank Godric himself.

“Alright,” Andy said after a few more minutes and Narcissa almost looked like herself again, still a bit pale, but otherwise, at least not on death’s door. “There are a few more things I’ll need to do, but otherwise, she’s fine for now. You both can stop.”

Hermione finished the last arc of the counter she was on and swallowed hard. Narcissa was going to be fine. Andy had saved her. She pulled in a deep breath but felt like she might not be getting enough air. Oh, this was not the time to have a panic attack. It had been months since her last one, a leftover from the war that had faded, but not completely left her with time. But Andy needed to focus on Narcissa, not calming her down. She just needs to take a deep breath and another and another. She would be fine.

Anathema took her hand again. “Cara, are you ok,” she murmured quietly.

“I’ll be fine,” she managed to choke out. She just had to stop thinking. Had to stop thinking about how it was all her fault that this had happened. That if she had been more careful Narcissa would be fine and they would all still be back in her office laughing and joking as she worked. Nevermind that it hadn’t looked like a fail safe, nevermind that she’d never seen anything like it before. She had known it was an unknown curse. She should’ve been more careful. But right now that line of thinking was only going to send her into a panic attack faster and so she just needed to get a handle on herself.

“Hermione,” Anathema said, voice firm. “Look at me.”

Hermione did so without question, meeting dark eyes, curls now falling in her face a bit wilder than she’d ever seen them before. God she’d almost caused this woman to lose her love before it had ever really started to bloom in full. She gasped in a breath. No air. There was no air in the room. Fuck. She was going to lose it. She felt herself slipping, too far gone now. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Hermione name five things you can see in this room,” Anathema continued, still looking at her, steady, sure, and Hermione might only be standing without shaking out of her skin because of the grip she had on her.

“I, I, I,” Hermione stuttered out. 

“Breathe with me, cara, and then when you can name those things, ok?” She took in a deep breath, chest expanding, doing rather delicious things to her cleavage and Hermione felt like she couldn’t breathe for half of another reason. Even during a panic attack her brain just wanted to cause her further problems but having complicated thoughts about a very,  _ very  _ taken woman. In a couple she wanted to work out. Narcissa and Anathema were obviously perfect together. 

But...they had been talking about a third? She wouldn’t mind being a third. Not with these two. She didn’t think anyway. They were the two most beautiful women she’d ever seen. She liked Narcissa’s dry wit and Anathema’s taste for mischief. She didn’t know them very well, but it could be more. If she wanted. If they wanted. How in the world was she supposed to know if they wanted it though?

“Cara,  _ breathe _ .” Anathema’s hands squeezed hers hard and Hermione finally came back to herself enough to actually breathe in slowly with the other woman and then exhale. She watched the other woman carefully for a few minutes, just breathing until finally she felt like she could focus enough to look around and still breathe and not hyperventilate. 

“Um, the bedspread, it’s a pretty blue, and Narcissa’s red toenails, witches paint their toenails? I thought that was just a muggle thing.” She had no idea when Narcissa’s shoes had been taken off, but that was beside the point right now. Obviously, Andy had handled it. “And your red dress. Wait they’re the same color, was that on purpose?” 

Anathema smirked in a way that definitely said it had been. How entirely over the top and how entirely like the two of them. She smiled weakly at the woman. Really she should expect nothing else. 

“Oh, you added little golden clips to your braids today, I like them.”

“Thank you, cara, and Narcissa thought they would be too dramatic for the DMLE. Shows what she knows, yes?”

“She’s met you right? Dramatic seems like your MO.”

Anathema laughed and nodded. “So it is. Keeps life interesting.” She brought up Hermione’s hands to her mouth and kissed the backs of them gently. “And the last thing?”

“Your lipstick is darker today, almost purple? I like that too.”

“Such close attention to how I look, cara, one might think you fancy me.”

Hermione felt herself blushing. “I mean, I do work as a law enforcement officer. I should be observant.” She felt almost like herself again. Almost. 

“Four things you feel?”

“How soft your hands are in mine,” she said immediately and it  _ was _ hard not to notice. She almost didn’t want to let go. “How warm your hands are. Where you pressed a kiss to them still tingles more than the rest of my skin.” She swallowed hard, eyes widening. How in the world had this become all about Anathema? “And um, feel of the floor against my feet,” she threw in at the last moment as a throwaway. 

“Three things you can hear?”

Hermione closed her eyes. “Andy whispering some more spells, I think one to activate a healing potion right now. Narcissa breathing, it’s a little labored, but better than it was.” Anathema’s thumb started to trace over Hermione’s skin softly. “And the sound of your skin against mine.”

“Good, cara, good, almost done, keep breathing just as you are. Two things you can smell?”

She kept her eyes closed. She’d never been terribly good with naming smells. “Um, something rich, I think cocoa butter?”

“Mhm, I used it in my hair before I restyled it this morning. Magic does wonders for hair upkeep.” There was a smile in her voice. 

“And something floral? Cherry blossom? No...chamomile? That seems more right.”

“My perfume is chamomile, lavender, and a hint of citrus.”

She opened her eyes to see Anathema looking at her, still steady, but softer now. “And for taste, well, nothing much, but my favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip, and I think after this I could use a double scoop of that.”

“I think that can more than be arranged once our bella amore is up and about again.” She let go of one of Hermione’s hands and Hermione missed the touch, but only for an instant. She raised her hand to Hermione’s face and cupped it gently. “You are ok, yes?”

Hermione nodded. She felt better, more grounded. She could calm herself down from here. “Yeah, I’ll be fine I think but…” She swallowed and used some of the Gryffindor courage she had for the next words. “Maybe don’t let go of my hand for a little while. It helps having someone to touch.”

“No problem, cara, no problem at all.” Her gaze shifted slightly. “You know none of this is your fault, right?”

Hermione felt her eyebrows scrunch into a scowl. “What do you mean?” Of course it was her fault. She was the one poking into new magic with little care to it all.

“I mean that I was watching everything you were doing, I know something of curse breaking myself, Hermione, not as much as you, of course, but enough. It certainly comes in handy being who I am.” She winked. “So you must believe me when I say that I know what to look for when it comes to fail-safes in a curse, not just because I’m under a truth spell, but because I do actually know what I’m talking about. I did not see anything either. There was no reason you should have thought anything was wrong until Narcissa started to react. The second you did, cara, you stopped and tried to stabilize the spell. It is not your fault that sealing up the spell so it didn’t cause further harm also hurt. It is the fault of whatever sick man crafted this spell. You were doing your best with the tools you had. I know this. Narcissa knows this. No one besides you thinks this is anything more than an unfortunate accident. And in the end there will be no harm. Narcissa will get better because Andromeda is taking care of her, and you will start over trying to break the curse, learning from what happened now. I’m sure you’re already thinking of a dozen ways to be able to know something is wrong before you trip another hidden fail-safe again. Am I right?”

Well, she’d had some passing ideas since, but mostly she’d just been in a state of panic. It wasn’t really conducive to thinking out of the box. Or thinking at all really. “I will before I try next time, for sure,” she said instead. 

“Exactly.” A gentle thumb swept across her cheekbone. “And just in case you think to beat yourself up anymore for this, answer me this question. Who would be trying to break the curse if you weren’t?”

“A ministry curse breaker,” Hermione said, tilting her head a bit, further into Anathema’s touch instead of away. She didn’t want the other woman to think her touch wasn’t welcome. It was. Perhaps it was even more steadying like this.

“And do you think they would’ve noticed it?”

She snorted. “No, of course not.” She even doubted they would’ve been able to get to that point, but if they had, no certainly not.

“Another question then. If it weren’t you working on this curse, but some other accomplished curse breaker, do you know anyone who would’ve seen that fail-safe coming?”

Hermione thought about it for a few seconds. There were people better than her of course, someone might have felt the change in the magic that she had missed, but all the classic signs, and even some of the more rare signs and symptoms of a fail-safe hadn’t been there. She  _ had  _ been watching rather carefully, even if she had missed whatever sign had to have been there. But, honestly, outside of the curse-breaking legends…

“No, I mean, not at least anyone I know who’s actually still working in the business that I know of. Not that they couldn’t be out there and I just don’t know about them, there do have to be people better than me, it’s not my area of expertise, but.” She shrugged. And maybe she did feel a bit lighter at the thought. She had done the best she could. She had. Because she wanted Narcissa to be safe.

“Exactly, cara mia, exactly. You feel more in control now? Not apt to throw yourself into books and not come up for air, let alone food or rest? Because I will come to your office and make you sleep and eat if I have to.” Her face turned stern, but her thumb brushing against her cheekbone was still soft.

Hermione put her free hand over Anathema’s. “I could say the same for you if Andy needs more than a few hours with Narcissa. You’d sit here right at her side and not get any sleep or eat anything, wouldn’t you?” She pulled Anathema’s hand from her cheek to lay a kiss on soft, dark skin. It was too much, she knew, for someone so clearly taken, but it felt right in the moment, and now, after coming down from a panic attack, she didn’t have enough emotional energy left in her tank to truly care. That would be a lovely task for her future self, she was sure, but for now. For now all she really wanted to do was sink into the other woman’s arms and relish in the comfort she had brought, and then sit at Narcissa’s bedside until she was one hundred percent sure she was better. But she just held onto Anathema’s hand again instead. She may be tired, but she still had some boundaries.

“I would, yes, but are you going anywhere, Hermione?” She lifted a finely sculpted eyebrow.

“No,” Hermione answered without hesitation, “No I’m not.”

“I didn’t think so.” She conjured two chairs and drew them near the bedside, gesturing for Hermione to sit in one while she took the other. “I think between the two of us we can manage to remember to eat, if only for the sake of the other, no?”

“We are capable witches.”

“Exactly.” 

She reached out for Narcissa’s hand at the exact same time Hermione did. Hermione pulled her hand back, obviously, Anathema should have first rights at such a touch, but the other woman just pulled her hand in, sandwiching her hand between hers and Narcissa’s. Hermione shivered at warm skin above and below her hand, but didn’t pull away. They both watched Andy work quietly as Narcissa slowly looked more and more like herself again.

\--

It was well after sunset by the time Andy pulled back and sighed in relief. “A good night’s rest and she’ll be good as new,” she said to Anathema and Hermione before turning to address her sister. “You’ll be tired tonight, but you should eat before you sleep. Your body needs the strength and energy. I’m sure you remember the lectures from when you were younger on why.” She raised an eyebrow and it looked so much like Narcissa’s own expression, Hermione wondered if they were looking in a mirror.

Narcissa sat up a bit, propped herself up on the headboard of the bed, looking exhausted but otherwise fine now. She picked at the comforter on the bed and nodded. “I remember most of the advice you’ve ever given me, yes. Even if I didn’t follow it. I remember it. And regretted not following some advice. Not all of it mind you because what sort of sisters would we be if I followed everything you told me to do.” Her nose scrunched. She raised her head to look at Anathema. “But I do regret not listening to you before you left. I had my reasons, and while I’ve never explained them, they aren’t as important as the fact that I am sorry for everything that has happened between us since. You told me to marry for love not what mother and father wanted and you were right. I...it may have taken me over twenty-five years and a truth curse to see it, but you were. I love Anathema. I have since we were at Hogwarts. Now that we’re together I think of all the time we could have had together as we are now, and I regret that time lost. But most of all...I regret losing you as a sister for so long. Anathema and I found our way eventually. But I’m afraid that...well after the war...after us trying to make it work. I’m afraid we won’t ever find our way again. And I so desperately want to.”

Andy sighed heavily. “I’m not doing this with your right now, Narcissa. You’re tired. I’m tired. It’s not a good time. Plus you’re under a truth curse. Not exactly the best time, eh?” She pushed herself up with a bit of a groan. Hermione stood up quickly just in case she might have to catch the other witch. Healing magic had a nasty tendency to drain the person casting it such that they didn’t feel it until they started to move again after the healing was done, but Andy caught herself with a hand on the bed.

“Why isn’t this a good time.” She waved her hand. “Yes, yes, tiredness, but I mean the truth curse just...you’ll know how much I mean it when I say that I miss you, ‘dromeda. I think half of what Anathema has heard this week beyond talk of our love is how much I wish to make up with you. That isn’t out of the ordinary, really, I have made mention of such before, especially right after the war and our efforts were not going well. I desperately wished they would. I sought advice on how to make everything work out. I followed what I thought would work. I did everything I thought I could. If this curse makes any difference to your thought of my genuineness, then so be it. I don’t care if I say something revealing to you, you’re my sister and I trust you with my life. Quite obviously considering.” She gestured at the room as a whole. 

“I will back up what she says,” Anathema said, looking at Andy with a level stare, almost daring the woman to hurt her love. “She’s been working up the courage to send you a letter while we’re under this curse. She has a pile of parchment on the floor two feet high from drafts she’s written, trying to find the right words. She wanted to get it perfect, even though she knew the perfect words wouldn’t fix everything, but they would be a start. And as for the past, after the war, she sought my counsel extensively and then my shoulder to cry on when it didn’t work out. She loves you dearly. She wants to be your sister again in more than blood. She wants to be family in the true meaning of the word, not the watered-down pureblood concept of family, but someone who cares and relies on the other person no matter what. She knows it will take work to get there. She knows that the bridges between you were burnt, but she’s willing to rebuild. Are you? You are the one who reached out the first time. Were you not genuine then? Were you just lonely?”

Hermione placed a hand on Anathema’s shoulder. She understood where she was coming from, she did. She wanted to protect Narcissa too, but she was on a collision course to poison Andy if Andy didn’t give the right answer, and that probably wasn’t the best outcome here. Anathema relaxed under her hand and looked up at her with slightly apologetic eyes. She shrugged. She hadn’t crossed a line. She’d just been about to. There was a difference.

Andy pinched the bridge of her nose and sank back down in her chair. “Accio home phone,” she waved her wand and a few seconds later it was in her hand. “Well, this isn’t going to be a short conversation then considering neither of you look like you’re about to let me out of it, and while I don’t fear you, Cissy, Anathema has killed seven husbands, so it’s only healthy to respect her.”

“Six,” Anathema corrected. “Blaise’s father actually was an accident. He was a good man. Shame, I’m very much a lesbian but I don’t think I would’ve minded being married to him until this one came to her senses.” She nodded to Narcissa. “He would’ve made a lovely father for Blaise.”

“I’m very much going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Hermione said, squeezing Anathema’s shoulder. She had a vague feeling that there was a law somewhere that confessions that were coerced weren’t admissible in court, but she would have to double-check the wording to make sure it covered spelled admission. Veritaserum confessions only counted if the correct paperwork was filed for its use and these were essentially the same, but until then, she definitely didn’t hear Anathema admit to murder. Nope. 

“Oh I apologize, cara, the spell. I don’t want to cause you any conflict of interest.”

“It’s fine. I don’t think anyone in here is going to tell the authorities.” Andy and Narcissa both shook their heads in unison. “And I...well, even if it was a war, I have blood on my own hands. I’ve seen the files on your former husbands...you did the world just as much of a favor as I did.”

A slow smirk curled itself onto Anathema’s face. “And when did you pull those files, cara?”

Hermione blushed and looked away from the woman. “Anyway, what did you need the phone for Andy?”

“Take away. Closest place with the fastest delivery is Chinese, anyone object because if you do, tough, because I need a hot meal ASAP.”

No one dared shake their head after that. Not that Hermione would’ve, she liked Chinese food, but she had a feeling that Narcissa and Anathema might be a bit new to take away Chinese food. Considering they had no idea what to order when Andy looked at them, Hermione definitely wasn’t wrong. However, she needed a rather large amount of fried rice right now considering she’d skipped lunch, which Andy was happy to order for her.

She set the phone down when the food was on its way and looked back to Narcissa. “Fine, Cissy, if you want to start this now, then we’ll start this now. Why I think it isn’t a good time right now? Yes, you may be completely honest now and mean everything you say, but being able to hold nothing back.” She sighed loudly. “We’re Slytherin. Sometimes I think people rather forget that about me, what with the fact that I ran off with a muggleborn and got married, to a Hufflepuff at that, but that never did change who I am as a person. And who I am as a person needs to hear what you wouldn’t say just as much as what you would. You mean everything now, but how much of it would you really say if you weren’t under a truth spell. That  _ matters _ , at least it matters to me. It tells me how much you actually mean this. It’s been five years since we drifted apart again, Narcissa. The things that drove us apart the first time have long cooled off. Why wait so long? Why not before this curse? Why does it matter now?”

“It has always mattered. But I’m not the sister that could have been sorted into Gryffindor. Things didn’t work out the first time, I was worried that if they didn’t work out the next time they never would. So I waited and waited, hoping to find the right time because I do mean this. I always have. This may not be the right time, who knows, but if this curse makes it easier for me to tell you that you have always been my favorite sister and I’ve always kept tabs on you to make sure you and your family were happy and safe and loved, that I fended off Bella when she might have sent people after you, and that I love you with my whole heart, why should it matter that a spell is helping me? You know me. You know when I’m being honest. You’ve always been able to tell. Does it really matter that I wouldn’t have said some of those things without this spell? I would have always said the important things. I would have always asked for us to try again, I would have always said that I missed you and that no matter what you’ve always been my family. What does it matter that I wouldn’t have explained that I stayed because I had already made a promise to Lucius to marry him so both of us weren’t stuck in marriages with people who expected us to be straight and would’ve hated us when we weren’t, or that I spent a week healing from Bella’s knife when I told her that you weren’t worth the time to attack in front of her little death eater friends, or that I’ve written so many letters over the years to you to beg you for forgiveness that they amount to a small forest but I never sent them because I was afraid if I reached out that someone might attack you and kill you or your husband, or gods forbid, your daughter. Does that information change the sentiment? Really?” 

She met her sister’s eyes directly. “And that also doesn’t change the fact that you could have reached out again. It’s a two-way street. I was the one who tried everything to make it work the first time. I was the one whose owls stopped being answered. You were the one who tapered off our contact until it was nothing. What else was I supposed to think? What else was I supposed to do? You made it clear that you weren’t ready yet. In what world was I supposed to think that it should be me who reached out the next time. And yet here I am doing it anyway. And I would’ve done it soon enough, even if this hadn’t have happened. The second Hermione got close to breaking it I would’ve just sent whatever letter I managed to draft, perfection be damned because honesty would be more important and I can’t be more honest than I am now. I  _ want  _ this to work more than anything. But now it’s all on you, ‘dromeda. Because it will take both of us. I can’t do it all on my own. For this, it wouldn’t be right if I did. So please. Please.”

Hermione sat again and reached for Narcissa’s hand. How could she not? The woman was laid bare before her and she obviously needed comfort. Even if that comfort would’ve meant more from Andy, she knew that comfort in general wouldn’t be remiss. The next second Anathema’s hand was above hers again, palm warm against the top of her hand, squeezing both of their hands gently and she sighed quietly, waiting, waiting, waiting, to see what Andy said.

Andy sighed. “You always were the one who was good with words. Fine, you have a point about all of this. I wasn’t ready at the end of the war. I was too overwhelmed. I couldn’t raise a baby and mend bridges and mourn all at once. Something had to give and I couldn’t choose to disregard the other two. You did get the short end of the stick. But I did mean it. I did want my sister back in more than just name. I just...I knew it would be complicated, I just, didn’t know how much. I was so angry seeing you, after Teddy and Nymphadora, you were too closely allied to their killers that with everything…” she trailed off but the thought was clear. She’d associated Narcissa with everything bad in her life. “I tried to fight against it, but I was tired. It was hurting me, hurting both of us, really, and hurting our chances that this would ever work out. So yeah, I broke it off. Better to do that than to burn everything that was left. But...I’m in a better place now.” Her eyes flicked to Anathema. “I think we both are. Maybe trying again isn’t the worst idea. But.” She paused, considering her words. “I’ll still feel better when the curse is lifted and you are your actual self. Considering how complicated that curse looks, it might be some time before it’s lifted, even with the smartest witch of her age working on it. So. Baby steps until then, and then afterwards perhaps we can start on the heavy lifting?”

Narcissa nodded slowly. “Fair enough.”

“Good.”

The doorbell rang and Andy stood again. “Food is here. Do you think you can make it downstairs to the dining room to eat or should I bring it up here?”

“I still do have legs. You did a decent enough job that I can use them.”

Andy rolled her eyes. “Yes, I should hope so after almost thirty years as a healer.”

“Always so modest.”

Andy started towards the door. “Ah yes, the thing I missed most about having a sister, the mocking. Of course.”

Both sisters snorted at the same time before Andy slipped out of the room entirely and towards the front door. 

“Are you ok?” Anathema asked as soon as Andy was out of earshot. 

“I’m fine, my love. Honestly, that wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but that won’t really be the hard part. That will come later, but a start is a start. I will take it.”

“Well now I just suppose I had better find the real way to break the curse on you so you can get on with it,” Hermione said, voice light. There was still a frisson of guilt that crossed her mind, but it was certainly a lot less than it would’ve been without Anathema’s intervention. 

Narcissa’s eyes met hers, soft with that same expression Hermione was definitely not about to put a name to, not if she wanted to stay sane. “I’m sure you will, darling.”


	6. Chapter 6

Two weeks later, and Hermione definitely  _ hadn’t _ found anything. In fact, the only thing she had found was about three more ways to almost trip that damn fail-safe. Not that she actually  _ had _ tripped it a second time, no she knew what to look for now, subtle as it was, but she’d found a tell, just a little hitch in the magic right before the fail-safe, always right after it seemed as if she might be getting somewhere in the magic strands of course. And she was god damned sick and tired of it.

Of course it didn’t help that Narcissa had been in her office almost daily for three weeks and Anathema the same for almost two weeks. No that wasn’t helping her sanity  _ at all  _ right now. Because the longer they spent in her office, the bolder Anathema got with flirting, the more Hermione got that look from Narcissa, and the more that she herself talked to both women and felt herself feeling more than just ‘oh hot lady’ about them. Merlin strike her down right now, it would probably be for the best. If she didn’t solve this case soon she was either going to lose it or cross a line professionally that she definitely shouldn’t do when she was in the middle of investigating a case. Starting a romance with a subject of the case was strictly off-limits for a reason. And that didn’t even get into the fact that they were  _ together _ . Not that she hadn’t done her research and found that the wizarding world accepted triad marriages. They were rare, of course, mostly in old pureblood families that had trouble conceiving and wanted to up the odds, but still. There was no way that Anathema Zabini and Narcissa Black wanted that from her. They were just having a bit of fun flirting.

And she would keep repeating that to herself until she either believed it, the case was over, or she actually found that out from the two women who were due in her office any minute now. Hermione shrieked quietly and summoned a stress ball, squeezing the living daylights out of it in an attempt to let off some steam, but it definitely wasn’t working. If she were any stronger she probably would’ve crushed the ball until there was foam coming out from between her fingers. Really she might get more relief from just pelting it across the room, but that wasn’t very professional either. Godric knew that the last thing she needed to give the assholes on her squad was a reason to say she was losing it. She just needed to find something else to focus on and it would be fine. Maybe her plans after work. Not that she actually had that much time after work to do anything other than just eat and fall into bed to get up and do it again tomorrow, but, maybe she could read a chapter of that new book on potion ingredient substitutions she’d bought last month and had been dying to get the time to read. Yeah, that would be a nice treat.

“Good afternoon, Hermione,” Narcissa said, sweeping in. The woman no longer knocked so long as the door was open, which Hermione was mostly fine with, but right now it caused her to jump and reach for her wand like she was back in the middle of the war. She stopped her hand before it got anywhere near her wand, but still. She needed to calm down, but really, she’d never managed to do that when she was this frustrated without some sort of stress release and she wasn’t about to get that. Nope, if anything the next few hours would only make it worse.

“Hello, cara mia,” Anathema said, coming in a few seconds later. She had a rather wicked look on her face. Did she want to know what that was about?

“Hello,” Hermione said, trying to appear more relaxed than she was. “Terrorizing my staff, Anathema?” Not that some of them didn’t deserve it, but she should be prepared for bitching later depending on which one it had been.

“No one who didn’t deserve it,” Anathema said, sinking down in her usual chair.

Hermione just arched an eyebrow and waited.

“I believe his name is Barrows.”

Hermione groaned. She should’ve known. He’d been too quiet lately. He was due to make some trouble. He would be reprimanded, she knew, but it was still being reviewed for just how severe it would be. The good old Ministry of Magic, no matter the department, was never the quickest on the uptake. And of course it had been long enough that Barrows thought he’d gotten off scot-free. Bloody fucking wanker that man, she would show him that he hadn’t gotten away with it.

“What in the world did he do now?” Hermione asked, groaning.

“Oh, he made the mistake of insulting my lovely Narcissa, so I just rather informed him of the consequences of such an action. If he’s clever he’ll be able to talk by the end of the day. If he’s not clever, which I don’t think he is, well, it will wear off tomorrow.”

“Langlock?” Hermione asked. She only wished she was allowed to cast such a spell on him. 

“A variation of it, yes.” She smirked. “And not a very well known variation at that. He doesn’t exactly strike me as a man who reads books to know the difference.”

Hermione snorted. “He once bragged that he made it through Hogwarts without visiting the library once. Suffice to say that no, he doesn’t read.”

“Shame. What a shame.” But Anathema was still smiling like the cat that got the canary.

“You realize that half the squad is going to try and curse you tomorrow.” Not that Hermione would allow that. The second someone raised a wand at the woman she would have them suspended without pay, damn the slowness of the ministry. She’d have it processed by end of day.

“I’d like to see them try, cara. Really, if they can so much as land something on me, they deserve the reward. But most likely they’ll find themselves treated to whatever they thought to curse me with. The more vicious they are, the worse off they’ll be. They’ll learn.” She twitched her eyebrows, pleased.

“I suppose they will.” And she would be watching tomorrow to see. She stood and grabbed her wand, walking to Narcissa’s side. “And I also suppose we should start trying to figure out this curse again today.” She sighed heavily. 

“Something wrong, Hermione?” Narcissa asked as she started the process of unwinding the strands to where she had fixed them the day before.

“Nothing, really, just…” she paused for a moment untangling a bit of difficult magic. “I thought I would be further along by now. I’ve gone back and looked through every rune and arithmancy reference book I have for help on deciphering the magic here, worked out half a dozen formulas in the minutes I’ve had between meetings, everything I can think of to help this untangling go faster, and nothing has worked. I’m out of ideas on how to break this curse besides just sitting here and brute force untangling it, but that could take  _ ages _ and I should be able to figure out the basic structure at least to help myself along, but no.” She felt like stomping her foot, but she was an adult, and she wasn’t about to allow herself to do that. 

“When you’re stuck the best thing to do is take a break, I’ve found,” Anathema said, lounging in her chair like it was a throne and not some cheap government salvage. “My sixth husband presented such a problem so I took Blaise on a trip to my hometown in Italy for two weeks. It was a lovely trip with my piccolo orso and by the time we got back I had a clear plan that worked out in the end.” She tilted her head. “Well, before we got back really. It made for a lovely alibi.”

Hermione was ever so glad she’d confirmed that the law covered this spell in the same way it covered Veritaserum. Still, Anathema probably shouldn’t say such things in front of the wrong audience. Nothing could change the law faster than an angry public. She wondered if that was the real end of this spell, to change the laws around punishment, but she didn’t really think so. Her gut told her that this was still more focused on getting everyone to confess to larger crimes, to have their punishments be more intense than they had been originally. She wondered if whoever had done this even knew that the confessions given under this spell were worthless. Any lawyer a pureblood would hire would know it and get the case dismissed immediately. By the time the ministry would act to change the law, well, everyone would be free again. Not that she really minded considering who was sitting in her office. She’d rather them not go to jail. As for the rest, she didn’t really believe that they all had learned a lesson, no, but they had been tried, the ministry had had their chance to prove their crimes, and they had been punished. There was no double jeopardy for a reason. And honestly? The public at large needed to move on from the war, leave it in the past, not have it drug up again. Change was happening, old pro-pure blood laws were being repealed, the justice system updated, a hundred other little changes that in time would amount to a cultural shift. It may be slow and staggering, but it was what was needed. 

So what she said instead was, “I really hope those confessions of murder don’t happen anywhere else other than this office, Anathema. That was the one who made his fortune running sweatshops, right? Or was that seven?”

“No, that was him. And of course you and Narcissa are the only ones to hear such things. Mostly because my conversations with others stray nowhere near such topics, but also because Narcissa did inform me that we have some control over what we say so I do make sure I stop before anything untoward is revealed. I have been getting away with this since I was twenty-one after all.”

Hermione snorted. “Good to know. I can’t have you going to Azkaban, now can I?”

Anathema hummed. “If the Ministry could even catch me. I own beach houses in two non-extradition countries. That’s what I did with the first one’s money.”

Well. That one had been the one who funneled money into Voldemort’s cohort the first time around and had been suspected of multiple muggle murders. Vigilante justice wasn’t exactly her cup of tea, but. She had been on the rebellion side of the war. So it wasn’t  _ not  _ her cup of tea either. And escape houses in non-extradition countries were a smart move.

“Which ones?” She imagined Anathema would choose something rather tropical.

“Why, would you like to go on a vacation there with us?” Anathema cocked an eyebrow, gaze sweeping her form in that hungry way that had only become more frequent as the days had passed. 

Hermione felt herself blushing. “Mostly I was just curious...mostly.”

“Well, if nowhere she has a house suits, we could always use one of mine,” Narcissa said with a smirk. 

“Ah, but are they in non-extradition countries, bella amore?” Anathema challenged. 

“At least one, the others are just fun.” She winked at Anathema. 

“Fine, fine, one is in Japan.”

Hermione nodded. The Japanese Ministry of magic didn’t exactly trust anything to do with the UK for good reason. Leftover ill will from their Ministry of magic’s rather colonial spirit would certainly do that and combined with the fact that even after that era, any time a cadre of British wizards would appear on their shore, magical items seemed to always go missing and their people were treated as nothing more than a sideshow attraction for how differently they interpreted magic, well, that didn’t exactly lead to the best international relations.

“The other is in the Maldives.”

Ah, they made sense for the same reasons then.

She looked at Narcissa and arched an eyebrow. 

“Barbados. Also, the odds of actually being extradited from any of the Greek Islands are slim to none even though they technically have a treaty. We have a house in Crete as well as Lesbos.”

Hermione couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You, you mean to tell me,” she said around laughs, “that you, a lesbian, has a house on the Isle of Lesbos.” She laughed harder. “The irony here is just too good to be true. I’d also love to go.” She stilled herself and went back to working for another few seconds before she hit another trip for a fail-safe. She gently circled the piece of magic in a cage of her own, isolating it so it wouldn’t hurt Narcissa again before she pulled it free and watched as it disintegrated. Wonderful.

“We can go if you wish. I admit I haven’t been there since I was a girl. It was beautiful though.”

“I think Sappho would certainly approve of the three of us ending up on that island.” Anathema snickered. “Especially with what we would get up to, yes?”

Hermione groaned, both at the fact that she was now thinking of just  _ what _ they could get up to on an island famous for a lesbian poet, and the fact that another two days of work was down the drain. This was the fourth time it had happened. Nothing she had done had changed the outcome of always hitting a fail-safe. She was going to have to figure out a way to completely deactivate the fail-safe before she could move on, it wasn’t just a matter of carefully unpicking the magic in a different way, of using another arthimantic formula to guide her untangling, of setting runes down around Narcissa to aid her eyes in seeing the right way, it would have to be more complicated than that.

She dropped her wand to her desk, walked back to her chair, and flopped down. She turned her face towards the ceiling and continued to groan.

“Did I break her, do you think?” Anathema asked Narcissa.

“I don’t think she’s broken, she’s clearly made of tougher stuff than breaking at a bit of innuendo. No, I think we’d have to keep her on edge for days before she’d snap like this.” Narcissa sounded rather eager to do so. Merlin,  _ that  _ wasn’t helping.

“Now that is an idea for later…” She heard the slight jingle of Anathema shaking her head. This week’s hairstyle had her hair in a myriad of small box braids that flowed down her back with gold clasps here and there on each braid so she jingled just a bit when she moved her head quickly. “Beside the point, cara mia, what’s wrong?” She directed towards Hermione.

She fell silent, mostly because she’d run out of air, not because she didn’t want to keep groaning to the high heavens. Just if she kept doing that, someone on her squad would eventually come looking for the source of the strange noise, and that was the  _ last  _ thing she needed right now. So she scrubbed her hand over her face and sat up enough to look at the two witches on the other side of her desk. 

“Just, it’s been two weeks and I’m frustrated and hitting another fail-safe has just thrown me off the edge of a very frustrating cliff. Also balancing the work from this case with my regular work is a lot, so there isn’t much time to decompress and it’s weighing on me, but I’ll be damned if I drop any of the balls I have up in the air because they’re all important and I really, really, really want to break this curse for you both so you aren’t in danger if someone asks you the wrong question at the wrong time because at the very least you both are my friends and probably in all reality more and I’m very conflicted about that because you two together are obviously perfect for one another and where in the world am I supposed to fit with you two but also I might like to but also I really don’t know so I’m mostly just chasing myself in circles around my brain about the curse, about this,” she gestured to the two of them, “and about everything else I normally worry about and it’s a  _ lot _ .” She sucked in a deep breath, having said all of that in one go. She felt herself blushing hard. It had been a long while since she’d rambled like that, probably since she was back in Hogwarts, maybe a little after. Going into the workforce had curbed her tongue a bit, both for time purposes and just because no one really cared to listen to her long-winded talks on whatever interested her. Which more’s the pity they might have learned something, but still.

Anathema looked at Narcissa and both of them nodded in unison. They stood up and made their way around Hermione’s desk. Each of them took an arm and pulled her up out of her chair and towards her office door gently. 

“We know exactly what this calls for,” Anathema said, casting to summon all of Hermione’s personal belongings and levitating them along behind them.

“It’s an afternoon off and a very large bowl of ice cream in your favorite flavor, chocolate always does work best, but I suppose it does depend on if you like chocolate ice cream.” She shot Hermione a questioning look as if she would be rather disappointed if she didn’t like chocolate ice cream.

“I mean my favorite is cookies and cream, but chocolate is always good.”

“Cookies and cream is also acceptable. There’s still chocolate in that. Have you ever tried chocolate cookies and cream?” Narcissa asked as they both led her out of the department, her entire squad looking on. There would probably be hell to pay for this later, but fuck them. Now that Narcissa and Anathema had mentioned ice cream, it was all she wanted. Florian’s biggest sundae with a stupid amount of chocolate sauce and whipped cream and cherries, yes please and thank you.

“No, actually, didn’t even know they made that.”

Narcissa smirked. “Good, come along then, we know a place.”

“We’re not going to Florian’s?” Hermione asked as they hit the bustle of the hallway, moving towards the elevators.

“No, Florian’s is good, but we know a place where the ice cream is to die for,” Narcissa said.

Anathema just smirked and somehow Hermione got the impression that at least one of her husbands had somehow died by ingesting ice cream. How in the world the woman had managed that...probably cyanide in something with almonds in it. The cold, fat, and sugar would dull any bitter taste from the poison and it would be easy to get someone to eat a good bit of ice cream to make sure they got the lethal dose. Clever, really. And maybe, just maybe, she never wanted to be on Anathema’s bad side. Yet another fun thing to consider, would Anathema feed her some poison ice cream if this all went sideways. 

If it ever even got off the ground. 

She stifled another groan as they got onto the lift and traveled down towards the atrium. “In London or are you both whisking me off to parts unknown?” Hermione asked instead.

“Oh, it’s still in Diagon, just up towards Twilfit and Tattings and in one of the many side alleys,” Anathema said. “A hidden gem really.”

Ah, towards the ritzier area of Diagon then, which explained why Hermione had never come across it before and she was rather well aware of good ice cream shops. For professional reasons of course. But she never went that way since a ministry salary was enough to pay the bills, certainly, but definitely not enough to do a whole lot more than that. She wondered if this to die for ice cream was priced to match. That would be disappointing. But then again...well, she was on the arm of Anathema and Narcissa, both very rich women. She wouldn’t allow them to do anything extravagant, she was her own woman after all, but buying her ice cream? Oh, she would allow them to do that.

Twenty minutes later they were outside a cute little cafe with sunny tables and more ice cream flavors than Hermione could shake a stick at. Earl grey ice cream? Matcha? Lemon pepper? Lavender Honey? The aforementioned chocolate cookies and cream?

“Narcissa, Anathema, how exactly am I going to choose when I want a good two-thirds of them?” She definitely didn’t want the pear and bleu cheese one. She didn’t like bleu cheese when it  _ wasn’t  _ adulterating ice cream, let alone when it was.

“Well you could get more than one scoop, it is a treat after all for how hard you’ve been working,” Narcissa said, setting a hand on Hermione’s forearm.

Anathema did more than that and wrapped her arm through Hermonie’s and plastered her to her side. “I do try a new one every time. I think perhaps my favorite is the champagne and violet.”

Hermione laughed at that. “It would be your favorite, wouldn’t it.” She turned to look at the woman who was very,  _ very  _ close and her breath stopped in her throat. Fuck. How did lungs work again?

Anathema’s smirk was positively sinful as she leaned forward slowly and dropped a kiss on Hermione’s cheek. “You’re right,” she murmured, “it does rather fit who I am as a person, no?”

“You’re trying to kill me,” Hermione breathed out.

“Oh, cara mia, if I was trying to do that, you would never know.” Anathema pulled back a bit to give her enough room to make her all-important decision of ice cream flavors.

Merlin, that shouldn’t be hot. It really shouldn’t. And yet  _ somehow  _ it was. God, how much of a gay disaster could she possibly be? She turned towards Narcissa hoping to get a bit of relief but found exactly none. The other woman was looking at her, biting her bottom lip, and looking like she was contemplating just tugging both Hermione and Anathema back out the door and to parts unknown for something Hermione rather thought she would enjoy so long as her brain shut up enough to let her enjoy it. She swallowed hard.

“What’s your favorite, Narcissa?” Hermione said, and if it was a bit breathier than normal, well who exactly on the face of the planet could blame her. 

“Anything with chocolate, though there is a Bordeaux and chocolate one that I’ve gotten more than once. Who can go wrong with wine and chocolate?”

“I certainly like licking both of them off your skin,” Anathema purred.

“Anathema!” Hermione groaned. “Didn’t you hear half of that rant earlier?”

“Oh, we both did, cara mia. Who’s to say such comments aren’t part of the solution?”

She looked to Narcissa, eyes wide, hoping she might save her from Anathema’s innuendos, but she just smiled and stepped forward to order. Yup. Both of them were going to be the death of her. It was fine. It was a decent way to go really.

Hermione picked out three flavors at random and stepped forward. Didn’t really matter if they were the ones she really wanted to try. There was no way she wasn’t coming back here with these two. She had a sneaking suspicion that Anathema would now make it somewhat of a regular thing, if only to make her squirm some more. She ended up with sweet potato maple walnut, balsamic fig, and cayenne chocolate, not bad for a random selection. And then Anathema stepped up beside her, putting a hand on her lower back nonchalantly and ordered the champagne and violet ice cream she’d talked about a minute earlier. How, exactly, hadn’t her husbands known she was out to murder them again? It was real unclear from this end.

They all sat at one of the sunny tables and started to eat their ice cream. Hermione moaned at the first taste. Good god damn, it was delicious. She definitely saw why both of them loved the place so much. She glanced up to find both of them watching her, spoons frozen halfway to their mouths.

“What?” She asked. “It’s good.”

“So it is,” Narcissa said, voice a bit rough.

Anathema just hummed her agreement as she slowly managed to bring the bite of ice cream up to her lips and lick it off the spoon slowly. So now Hermione knew exactly how Narcissa felt. It was fine. Truly. She wasn’t overworked and overthinking everything or anything. She stuffed another large bite of ice cream into her mouth and lost herself in the taste of fig and good balsamic. Ice cream wouldn’t hurt her.

They ate in silence for a few minutes and Hermione sampled all three of her flavors and decided that the chocolate cayenne was her favorite and proceeded to demolish the entire scoop with rapid abandon. It was exactly what she needed after the last couple of weeks. She slowed down once that scoop was gone, savoring the other two more slowly as she finally looked back up at Narcissa and Anathem, who were holding hands as they ate their ice cream slowly with prim and proper little bites. She wanted to snort but managed to hold it in. You could take the women out of high society, but you couldn’t quite ever take that training out of them. It was sort of adorable. She smiled at the both of them softly and sighed.

“What?” Narcissa asked, raising a delicate eyebrow. 

Hermione shrugged lightly. “Nothing, just...I’m glad you two are happy even with all this.” She gestured vaguely. 

“Of course,” the blonde said, “it’s hard not to be happy in your company, Hermione.”

She opened her mouth to refute that that’s not what she meant at all, but there was a knowing look in the other woman’s eyes. She knew that that wasn’t what she’d meant and yet here they were. Much like high society, you could take the woman out of the Slytherin common room but…

“Honestly this is the most fun I’ve had in years, cara. I’ve been without suitors since after the war.” Anathema smirked as if to say ‘they finally wised up.’ “Though this is certainly preferable to that type of fun. I actually enjoy the sex this way.”

Hermione blinked for a second and just let that slide right on. She already spent far too much of her night thinking about just what Narcissa and Anathema would look like entwined together, she did not need to do it sitting in the sun in the middle of Diagon while the two women were right in front of her.

“Mmm, I actually get to have sex this way,” Narcissa added.

“Oh my god.” Hermione was only a woman. She could only let so much slide off of her without  _ some  _ sort of comment.

“She does say that a lot in bed. I have a wicked tongue.” Anathema swiped her tongue across the last spoonful of her ice cream.

“Yeah, I’m well aware.” Hermione stuffed another bite of ice cream in her mouth, sweet potato and maple coating her tongue soothingly in sugar and cream. “In fact, if your tongue would like to give a girl a break before she snaps in half like a twig from the tension that would be great.”

“Aw, cara, has my teasing gotten to you?” The words should sound remorseful, but Anathema definitely wasn’t.

“I think you well know it has. You had ears earlier, didn’t you?” She felt herself blushing, heat not being taken away from her cheeks despite all the cold of the ice cream.

“We both did,” Narcissa said. “And yet you don’t seem to be listening yourself. It is teasing, yes, but don’t you think under this spell that even teasing might mean something, Miss Granger? Surely the brightest witch her age should be able to figure it out.”

“I’ve...I’ve never really been good at relationships. I’ve sort of just accidentally fallen into them. Harry and Ron and I became friends only because they helped rescue me from a troll first year. And my first romantic relationship was my first partner on the force.” She winced. “That wasn’t a great idea, she was a nice woman but, uh, besides being partners we really had nothing in common.” She had been great in bed though, they’d also had that. But since she wasn’t the one under a truth curse, she wasn’t going to share that with the class. Merlin knew there was enough blood in her cheeks, if anymore left regular circulation she might just faint. 

There was a slightly murderous look on Anathema’s face. “No, Anathema, you can’t kill her. It didn’t work out, remember. No need to off her just in case.”

“I wasn’t thinking of  _ killing  _ her...only slightly poisoning. It would’ve worn off in a week, two at most.” She batted her eyes at Hermione.

Narcissa sighed dramatically. “You are going to be a handful to keep out of Azkaban, aren’t you?”

“I haven’t even really been under suspicion before, just rumors. What makes you think that suddenly I’m going to start becoming so sloppy, bella amore?” Anathema twirled one box braid around her finger idly. 

“Oh, whenever my hand slips too close to your ass you seem to lose a great deal of focus. You tripped over a cobblestone two days ago because of such things.”

Anathema’s cheeks tinted even darker, the woman blushing hard, not able to hide it from Hermione’s sharp gaze. “Yes, well, that is another matter, mia amore.”

“As if such a plot isn’t rooted in the same emotion. Anathema Zabini, rendered totally inoperable from just how attracted she is to women. The scandal,” Narcissa deadpanned. 

“Not just women! Specific women,” Anatham protested. 

“Noted, though that doesn’t negate my point, darling.”

Hermione felt a bit as if she was watching a tennis match, watching them trade witty remarks back and forth. Quite frankly it was more entertaining than tennis. She could watch this all day. She  _ wanted  _ to watch this all day. Ugh, so much for a relaxing bite of ice cream. Though it had definitely taken her mind off the curse and the case at large, so at least it was doing something for her. 

“Fine, fine, such things will just have to happen when neither of you are around. It’s possible.” Anathema waved her off. “If I’ve done it this long I can figure out new ways.”

“Will you really want to, even now?” Hermione asked.

Anathema paused for a long moment, looking a bit shocked at the question, or perhaps her instinctive answer. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before she finally managed to speak. “I...well, there will still be a bit of mischief, it does keep life interesting, but...no, I don’t think...nothing like before. I...Narcissa was what I really wanted and now I have her and just...there is you, cara mia, as well, and that is much more excitement than anything else I could think of.”

Hermione nodded slowly. “OK then. Good.”

Narcissa looked to Anathema, squeezing her hand, eyes questioning as they held another one of their silent conversations. Hermione put the last bite of her ice cream in her mouth watching them for a long moment before they looked back to her. She tilted her head at the rather serious looks.

“Do you need time, Hermione,” Narcissa said, “time to be certain?”

She froze, uncertain. It couldn’t. No. 

“Or do you need certainty?” Anathema asked.

“Both, maybe?” Hermione squeaked out, not exactly sure what else to say.

They looked at each other again before nodding. Narcissa stood up, banishing all their trash and offering her hand to Hermione. 

“Then time first. Certainty will almost certainly come with it.”

Hermione took Narcissa’s hand without hesitation and stood. And maybe she felt a bit better, or maybe that was just the feeling of Anathema stepping to her other side and dropping a hand on her lower back, just barely high enough to be proper. It was truly unclear.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I only plan 15 chapters. Yes. Do I keep increasing the chapter count because I have wordy bitch disease, also yes. I don't really think y'all mind, but YA KNOW. Enjoy the continuing gay. Y'all's comments have been <3

Hermione scribbled out another line of complicated arithmancy and suppressed the urge to scream. For all the sheets of paper she had gone through in the last week, she might as well buy stock in a parchment company. At least then she might actually get a return on her investment. No matter that the DLME provided her with parchment, the point still stood. A week of work, a week of trying to solve the problem of how to deactivate the fail-safe on the truth curse without hurting Narcissa, and nothing. At this point she was fairly sure that she could get her mastery in arithmancy just on solving this problem alone, Merlin knew it was complicated enough. Every solution she tried took up a sheet and then some. She crumpled up the sheet in front of her and threw it at the bin beside her desk, feeling just a bit of satisfaction as the thing came to life and shredded the paper with its teeth, chewing, and swallowing before burping contentedly and settling back down. It had been very well fed this week. She was sure it was overjoyed. 

The familiar tap of heels caught her ear. She could pick Narcissa’s walk out of a crowd now she was so attuned to it. Hermione felt herself perking up just a little bit at least at the thought that the other woman was here. At least she could distract her somewhat. She listened for Anathema’s footsteps but didn’t hear them. Had Narcissa come alone?

“Darling,” Narcissa said, strolling in with a smile. “Good afternoon.”

“Hi there, how are you?” Hermione smiled at the other woman. “Did you lose Anathema on the way, or did she have something else to do today?”

“She had a lunch with Blaise and said most likely to not expect her this afternoon.” She shook her head, a fond smile on pale pink lips. “I only have the vaguest of inklings of what they get up to together, but it’s Anathema so you can imagine it’s at the least mischief and at worst very illegal.”

Hermione tilted her head to the side at that in agreement. “Fair enough, he is her son. I can only imagine the two of them playing off each other leads to some interesting situations.”

“Mhm, to put it mildly. Once I believe they overthrew a dictator of a small country just for fun and the fact that he once snubbed Anathema at a party. Blaise was just curious to see if they could. That was over summer break of your fifth year I think.”

She looked up at Narcissa and blinked. “If that’s the vaguest idea you have of what they get up to, then I really don’t want to know. Or at least probably shouldn’t know. Professionalism and all that, this curse won’t be in place forever even if I have to kill god to break it, so probably should get used to not knowing.” Not that Anathema’s actions didn’t have their own moral code to them, but that wouldn’t exactly hold up in court. And she wasn’t about to have to testify against her...whatever she was.

“We really should get you into politics as soon as possible. Anathema does love to brag about a job well done. Well...more like she gets very  _ excited  _ about a job well done and it makes it into the dirty talk. She has a particularly filthy mouth and I love it.” Narcissa just laughed quietly at the bit oversharing, shrugging it off and sitting down gracefully. “Do you enjoy such things, Hermione?”

Anathema excited after pulling off some con on a rich white man who most probably enjoyed destroying the planet in some way or another, getting randy because of it, and dirty talk? “It might have its appeal.” She blushed and looked away. She couldn’t exactly look Narcissa in the face while she imagined Anathema spread out beneath her, gloriously naked, and worshipping every glorious inch of dark brown skin while she spoke lovely dirty words into the air about just how clever she was, nope, definitely not. Ugh, at some point she was going to get her head screwed on straight about this, at some point it wasn’t going to be something she shied away from, but that some point wasn’t now.

“Good to know,” Narcissa said, drawing back from the topic with Hermione’s short answer, smirk firmly plastered on her face. Hermione had more than a bit of feeling that flustering her was going to become she and Anathema’s favorite competition. “Have you seen The Prophet today?” she asked instead, changing the subject.

Hermione shook her head. Honestly, half the time the things it printed were vastly exaggerated or at worst, completely fake. You could trap Rita Skeeter in a jar, but you couldn’t change the fact that the woman was definitely a creepy, crawly freak of a woman who was still most assuredly employed by The Prophet. She subscribed to other wizarding papers instead for her news that actually stuck to the pillars of journalism.

Narcissa conjured a copy, flipped a few pages, folded it neatly, and then handed it to Hermione. She looked at the title of the section and scowled, confused. The society section? What in the world was in here that was so important that Narcissa had asked her if she’d seen it. She couldn’t imagine idle gossip rating that much of a mention. Narcissa wasn’t one to gossip, really. But she gave her the benefit of the doubt and scanned the articles. A divorce between two purebloods, very rare indeed, but not that noteworthy, especially after the war. An article about some party. Another divorce. And another. A notable pureblood man seen most assuredly on a date with a muggleborn man. Another pureblood woman on a date with a muggle man in Diagon? How in the world had she gotten away with that? She squinted closer at the picture and...was that a ring? Another divorce announcement. A pureblood woman and a half-blood woman spotted out together holding hands, the headline said something about pals, but Hermione knew better, that was a date too. And another divorce announcement. All the divorces were purebloods. All the people on dates too, with people who definitely weren’t, and some of them on same sex dates to boot.

“This isn’t normal.” Hermione placed the paper down and looked at Narcissa. “What’s going on?” She knew a couple of the names, women who’d been hit with the truth spell and had come to her to report it, but she didn’t know everyone who’d been on the page. 

“I did a bit of digging this morning to confirm my suspicions. Everyone on that page, well, every pureblood on that page is under the truth curse.”

“Everyone?” Hermione’s eyebrows rose ever closer to her hairline.

“Everyone.” Narcissa nodded.

She snorted. “So you weren’t the only one to get it together because of the curse.”

“So it seems.” Narcissa sat forward and tapped on one of the small pictures on the page. “Rella Buckthorn, from a mid-level pureblood family, her now ex-husband was in the lower echelon of death eaters, hardly ever saw Voldemort, he just got out of Azkaban a few days ago. Rumor has it that she saw him and he said he missed her and she blurted out that she certainly hadn’t, she was glad he was gone, glad he served the time he did, because she rather thought all this blood supremacy was nonsense but she’d been too scared to say so for fear of disappointing her parents.” She pointed at another picture. “Cassa Staghart, husband wasn’t a Death Eater, but a Snatcher after they couldn’t stay neutral anymore. I knew her growing up, quiet girl, a few years younger than I, seemed more suited to Ravenclaw than Slytherin and yet now perhaps I think I might have been wrong. She had me fooled into believing that she was straight, dated her way through a small army of Slytherin boys by the time I left, and probably a few more besides after that until her engagement to her former husband was announced. Guards in Azkaban reported her storming in, demanding to see her husband, then told him, loud enough for half the cell block to hear, that she was gay and they were divorcing. As soon as he signed the papers, she went right to meet the woman she’s pictured with. I believe it’s a first date and she met her through an owl dating service. From what I’ve heard she actually made the request that whoever she was paired with  _ not  _ be a pureblood, because she’d quote ‘had enough of that for one lifetime, thank you.’”

“Oh Merlin,” Hermione said, looking over the rest of the stories on the paper. How many scenes like that had played out over the last few weeks without anyone really paying attention to them? For that matter, just how many people were cursed right now? She’d thought it averaged out to a case a day or so, but this meant that it was more than that. But how many more? “I don’t really think this is what the man who cursed you all had in mind.”

Narcissa laughed, throwing her head back and truly laughing. “No, I don’t think he did, but with whatever compulsions he built into this spell, this is what he got. Purebloods not constrained by the burden of keeping quiet for self-preservation anymore. With no choice but to tell the truth, I’m not especially surprised this is happening, at least not the divorces. The dates with half-bloods, muggleborns, and muggles, that is a bit surprising, I must say. But I suppose not being constrained by self-preservation also means not being held back by a system you never truly believed in as well.”

Her head was spinning. Wow. And then a thought flashed across her mind. All of this was very obviously public. It was only a matter of time before the man knew his spell wasn’t working in the slightest. Would the sight of happy purebloods cause him to up the ante? She looked up at Narcissa frowning.

“If this man has cursed this many people? What are the odds that he tries something worse?” She put down the paper and bit her lip. She was days away from cracking the curse at best, in all honestly it would probably be more like weeks. How in the world was she going to protect all of these people except by catching the guy. Her hand rubbed at the back of her neck trying to massage away the tension that had gathered there.

“Well, considering he’s gone so far as to create a new curse and then walked around wizarding Britain to cast it on as many people as possible? It’s likely, but also, the fact that he’s been close enough to cast on all of us but didn’t think to bring harm to us…” Narcissa bit her lip in contemplation. “This screams of a man who thinks he’s in the right. To harm us would be to be the same as us. So while I’m not sure just what he might do, I don’t think it will be irreparable unless he does something foolish in altering his spell.”

Hermione sighed. “That’s what I’m worried about, really. Altering a spell this complicated quickly, especially if he’s not the one who crafted it, would be rather dangerous. Even if he was the person to come up with it, the point still stands, if to a lesser degree. I don’t exactly think he’s going to fully test it before going out and trying it.”

Narcissa reached across her desk and took Hermione’s hand, holding it gently. “Darling, worrying like this won’t truly get you anywhere but frantic. You are doing all you can. I’m confident you will break the curse and solve the case before anything untoward happens.”

She stared at their joined hands. “It doesn’t feel like it.” Her free hand massaged her neck harder. “The arithmancy on this curse is kicking my ass.” She gestured at her trash can. “He’s very well fed today. I know breaking the curse is the key to the case. I’ve been looking for someone who fits the description Anathema gave me, and it does narrow it down, but it’s still too broad. I’ve put out feelers to see which of them might have been vocal about the lack of punishment of death eaters, but honestly, that’s every other person it seems like. We need that magical imprint to actually have any actually substantial lead.” She sighed in frustration. “But whoever made this curse has had years to perfect it and I’ve had a little less than a month, most of which I just spent throwing myself at the fail-safe over and over again. I don’t exactly feel like the brightest witch of my age right now.”

She felt Narcissa push herself up from her seat, circling around her desk until they were both on the same side, heard her perch on the edge of it, all the while not letting go of her hand. She drew their joined hands into her lap and placed her other hand over top of Hermione’s, fine-boned, delicate, what she would imagine an aristocrat's hands looked like. Narcissa was so beautiful. Honestly it was hard to believe that she was interested in her at some moments. This moment was rather one of them. She kept looking at their joined hands against the sapphire blue fabric of the dress Narcissa was wearing. She liked Narcissa in blue, it set off her eyes and made her hair look even more like spun gold. And if she concentrated on that, and the feeling of a warm hand in hers, then she wouldn’t look up at the other woman and see whatever emotion was in her eyes. She knew Narcissa wouldn’t pity her, she did, but right now when she felt like hexing something into a dozen different pieces, well, she shouldn’t do much of anything to tip herself over the edge just in case.

“Hermione, darling, look at me,” Narcissa said softly.

“I’m not exactly sure it would be a good idea.” She swallowed hard. 

“Darling, you’re far too hard on yourself.” A gentle hand came to rest on Hermione’s chin, light pressure encouraging her to raise her face.

“Well, I mean most of my coping skills were learned during a war where everything was life and death, so that isn’t so surprising.” She pulled the hand on her chin away softly, pulling it to rest on her neck instead and leaning into the touch. “I have worked on changing that in therapy, but old habits.” She shrugged. “Especially in stressful situations, they’re hard to eschew.”

Narcissa’s thumb rubbed against the skin of her neck lightly. “Surely there have been more dire cases than this that you’ve worked on.”

“There have been, but…” She finally looked up at Narcissa. “I’m a bit more emotionally invested in this case than ever before.”

“I find that hard to believe. You’re Hermione Granger. You care a great deal about anyone in trouble.” Narcissa’s eyes were warm, fond, and Hermione wanted to sink into them at the same time that she wanted to run.

“I do, you’re right, but, well, not like this.” Everyone she’d helped during her years as an investigator had just been a victim, someone to help and then to be sent on their way with their problem fixed hopefully to a better life afterward. She checked in on a few of the worst cases every now and again to make sure they were doing well, but for the most part, her interactions with people who had brought her cases was perhaps a Christmas owl or a nod in the street if they passed one another. Narcissa and Anathema were so wholly different, she really didn’t have the framework to deal with it. Not that she really even had a framework for dating two women at all.

Narcissa pulled her forward just a bit and leaned down until their faces were a couple inches from each other. “I would hope not, darling.”

She found her eyes drifting to Narcissa’s lips. She was so close. It would be so easy just to lean forward and kiss her. Should she? 

No. No of course not. Even if she wasn’t torn up about everything, Narcissa was part of an active case. She couldn’t get involved until she solved it. She couldn’t get involved until she was sure that Narcissa and Anathema were finally safe.

“No one else could match up with you and Anathema,” she said, really before she meant to. “And I know you can protect yourselves, but…”

“You’re right. We can. Trust us to protect ourselves like we trust you to break this curse and to find the man who did it. Everything will be fine, Hermione. It will. We’ve been through worse. And then we can go on whatever absolutely convoluted date I’m sure Anathema has planned for all three of us. If we need to make sure you don’t give yourself an ulcer in the interim, we can do that, but I would feel much better if you would just let yourself breathe. Goodness knows you’ll probably be able to think more clearly if you do.”

Hermione took a deep breath in and tried to relax her muscles one by one. Everything was so tense it was harder than it should be, but slowly everything managed to obey her command. She slumped more into Narcissa’s touch, feeling so tired, spent, frustrated, scared all at once. But also sitting here, wrapped up in Narcissa? She felt warm too.

“There, is this not better?” Narcissa asked with the beginnings of a smirk tugging at her lips. 

“Just waiting to say I told you so, are you?” Hermione arched an eyebrow.

“Always, darling, always.” 

Hermione watched as Narcissa’s eyes tracked down to stare at her lips. She froze for half a second, holding her breath, waiting to see what the other woman would do before she relaxed again. If Narcissa kissed her, she wouldn’t turn away. She...she actually wanted to be kissed. It couldn’t really happen again while the case was still active, but once wouldn’t hurt. Once might actually kick her into knowing just what she wanted. And it was Narcissa Black. Who would really blame her? The woman was a goddess.

Narcissa leaned forward but instead of kissing her on the lips, kissed her gently on the forehead for a lingering moment before pulling back. “But since you are dear to me, I suppose I don’t need to hear you say it.” She sat on the edge of Hermione’s desk for another second before she stood again and circled back to her normal chair, transfiguring the other chair into a blackboard. “Now, I may not be the world’s foremost expert on arithmancy, but I do know a good amount. What have you figured out so far?”

Hermione looked at the other woman and smiled, feeling her heart squeeze in her chest for half a second. That forehead kiss, oh, that forehead kiss, somehow it had been just the right thing to do. She wondered how Narcissa had known. She hadn’t even known. But now the warmth in her chest felt all-encompassing and this perfect woman in front of her was why. She squeezed Narcissa’s hand for a moment before standing up and summoning chalk.

“Well so far I know it hinges on this formula, but the solution is multivariate and I haven’t been able to pin it down yet.”  And she proceeded to sketch out everything while Narcissa listened intently and nodded along.


	8. Chapter 8

Hermione scribbled away at the chalkboard three days later, frowning. Running through everything with Narcissa had helped, surely, but she was still maybe twenty-five percent of the way there at most, but now her progress was steady, if slow. She needed maybe a month more to get to the end, hopefully less. Honestly, she could use Narcissa as a sounding board again, but both her and Anathema had been busy with various business ventures that could no longer be put off after a month. She had a few different ideas for where to go next in the solution and she wasn’t quite sure which one made the most sense to follow. 

That and...well, she missed having at least one of them in her office at least once a day. She didn’t begrudge them being busy but. Well. She was a grown adult who could admit her feelings. At least the more innocent feelings anyway. Whatever, it was some sort of progress.

She frowned, looking at the line she had just written. Something wasn’t quite right, she felt like she had missed something easy in her rush to write everything down, but what? She was so focused on finding the mistake she didn’t hear anyone enter her office until she practically hit the ceiling when they spoke beside her ear.

“Cara, you missed a sign here,” Anathema said, pointing to the third variable in the line.

“Merlin, Anathema! You scared the pants off of me,” Hermione said, turning to look at the woman. She’d changed her hair again, curls free in a neatly tamed afro. Godric, did the woman have to look so good in any hairstyle? Probably yes. And it wasn’t like she wanted that to change. No, she very much loved looking at Anathema. 

“Well, that isn’t the exact way I’d like the pants off of you, but I will take what I can get.” She arched a finely sculpted eyebrow, challenging Hermione with a smirk.

Hermione weighed her options on what to say, did she play the game, did she move on to another topic, oh what to do. “Not usually how I like the pants coming off of me, either. I’m sure you’ll find a better way eventually. You’re a smart woman.” That was daring enough, she supposed.

“And so I am.” She laughed and turned back to the chalkboard. “Bella amore told me about your little problem. How goes it today?”

“Well, you just saved me probably five minutes of staring at the chalkboard trying to find the mistake. I knew something was off, but I couldn’t see what. I’m too far in it.” She went to rub her forehead but stopped when she saw her hand covered in chalk. She banished the mess wandlessly before she continued, rubbing at her temples and sighing. “But it’s better than it was. Narcissa really helped, but it’s still slow.”

“From what I can see it’s anything but slow. This is a great amount of complicated work, cara. I might not be as advanced as Narcissa in arithmancy, but I know enough to know that this is bordering on theoretical work.”

Some of it was, really. She’d had her reference books out trying to find ways around some of the problems she needed to solve, but even the advanced ones hadn’t given her everything she’d needed. She’d had to connect some disparate dots to get to a solution, but it definitely worked now. She’d tried it out on a few throwaway spells just to be sure.

“Do you think runes would help?” Anathema asked. “Those I could be more help with.” She smirked. “Narcissa always pouted so prettily when I got better grades than her in that class. They come rather naturally to me, so perhaps it wasn’t a fair fight, but I’m a Slytherin through and through and who cares about a fair fight when I got to see my amore so cute.”

Hermione thought about it for a few moments. Runes and arithmancy often went hand in hand, really, especially for old magic. “I think perhaps later. Runes would be easier than crafting an entirely new spell to tease out the fail-safe and secure it. I just have to solve this to know what sort would be needed to negate it.”

Anathema hummed and nodded. “Even just based on this, I have a few ideas for a base. A runic circle around the person you’re trying to break the curse on would be enough to deactivate the fail-safe with the right combination of runes.” She looked far away, thinking for a long moment before nodding. “I can start trying a few things and testing on myself and Narcissa to see if I can figure it out without the full solution. Considering how often I see you, cara, it will be easy to check in and see what else your lovely brain has teased out to inform my progress.”

“That would be great,” Hermione said. Help would be so great right now. Two months under a truth curse was a lot to ask of anyone. Speeding that up would take so much weight off her shoulders. And honestly? If Anathema managed to figure it out and craft the right rune circle off of not even half of an arithmantic solution? That would be brilliant and more than a little hot.

“Wonderful.” Anathema sank down into the one chair left in Hermione’s office now that the other seemed rather permanently changed into the chalkboard, at least for the time being. “Now, anything else you are stuck on? I’m not Narcissa, but I am very helpful in other ways.” Her smile was salacious but her eyes were serious of the offer of real help. “Unfortunately our amore was stuck in yet another meeting and told me to visit you without her. I was going to anyway, I missed dropping in and making you blush, but encouragement never hurt.”

“Actually, yes, I was just thinking it would be nice to have you as a sounding board.” She pointed at the end of the solution she just reached. “There are three different ways I think this could go on, but I’m not sure which makes the most sense to try.” She launched into the explanation, pacing her office slowly as she went through the pros and cons of each way to solve, what her next step would be after that first initial one, where she might get stuck if they didn’t work out as she’d hoped. Anathema nodded along, mostly following what she was saying, asking questions when she didn’t, and by the end Hermione had at least ruled out one of the choices, but the other two still seemed a dead-even split.

She sighed and sank down, sitting on the edge of her desk as the words came to an end. “And at some point, I’m going to have to fit in an entire day’s worth of paperwork that I’ve been ignoring while I’ve been fiddling around with this solution.” To underscore her point another memo flew in and placed itself on the ever-growing stack in her inbox. She rolled her eyes at Anathema. “Some days I really wish I still had a time turner, but knowing how much work I have, I’d end up 70 when I’m supposed to be 30, which considering I already have somewhat of a head start, isn’t that ridiculous.”

“What?” Anathema sat forward, curious. 

“My third year I wanted to take every single class that Hogwarts offered for third years. Since there was a bunch of schedule conflicts, the only way I could do it was if I had a time turner. They ended up giving it to me for all of third year. I jumped so many times that by my count I’m at least two years older than I should be, maybe a bit more if I miscounted.” She shrugged. It wasn’t like it mattered that much in the scheme of wizard aging. As powerful of a witch as she was, she was living until at least 120 anyway. That was far more than enough time on the planet.

“They didn’t give it to you the next year?” Anathema asked.

“Didn’t need to. I dropped divination in the middle of the year and muggle studies at the end.” She laughed. “I know why I wanted to take muggle studies, I wanted to see how they were portrayed through a wizarding lens, but honestly being a muggleborn, it was a bit ridiculous. I passed the exam with a 320%. After that, I decided that it wasn’t much worth it. And divination? Don’t even get me started on how much hogwash that all is.”

Anathema laughed and nodded. “Tell me about it, yet do you know who took divination up through 7th year?”

Hermione raised her eyebrows. Did Anathema? She didn’t seem the type really.

“Narcissa.”

“No!” Hermione laughed and imagined a teenaged Narcissa in the smoky divination tower, trying to figure out the future and nodded. Now that she could see.

“Yes, one of her great aunts was a famous seer, actually, batty old thing, but right more often than not. Narcissa wanted the gift but never had it, at least not in a large quantity. Oddly enough all her tea leaf readings were correct, but other than that.” She shrugged. “But that great aunt was a favorite of hers so she kept on with it.”

“Does she still?”

“Before anything big she’ll read tea leaves, but nothing else.”

“That’s sort of adorable,” Hermione said, heart-melting a bit.

“Isn’t it? Oh, I love her so much.” She smiled, lit up from within, looking so very, very happy.

Hermione melted even more. “You both are so perfect for one another. It’s obvious to anyone looking.” How anyone could miss that they were an almost sickeningly cute couple was beyond her. They were always touching, glancing, checking in with each other. Their awareness of the other was almost at the same level as an old married couple. Merlin, how Hermione wanted that.

Anathema held out her hand and Hermione took it without hesitation. “Are you still worried about coming between us, cara?”

Hermione tilted her head, thinking, but then slowly shook her head. “Not as much, no. But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t still a little concerned. You two are...you know each other so well, you’ve been best friends for over thirty years. You yourself have been in love with her and have known and admitted it for almost as long and stayed by her side even though I know that must have been a terrible, sweet agony at times. I have no doubt if were just the two of you, it would work because you’ve already seen the other person so entirely. It could go wrong, yes, but...you stayed by her side for thirty years. Neither of you strike me as one to give up something good.”

She ran her free hand through her hair and huffed out a breath. “But the three of us have only really known each other for a month. I want to know you both so desperately. I miss you when you aren’t here. Most of my day I spend listening for the sound of your heels walking towards my door. This could be great. But there’s so much more unknown here. And what if in the process of unbecoming, it breaks you up? Honestly, I worry about that more than I worry about my own broken heart.” She met Anathema’s eyes. “And yet I still want to try because this...this is the strongest pull I’ve felt towards anyone in...I’m not even sure how long, perhaps ever. And honestly? I know the odds. And I’ve faced worse. Gryffindor courage and all that says to go for it. I will. I just still need that bit of a nudge yet.”

She let out a half-amused bark of laughter. “I may have looked up the statistics on how many triads stay together in the wizarding world. Also in the muggle world, but there isn’t a long-standing if slightly outdated tradition of such pairings in the muggle world. That does make a difference on whether or not people stay together, the rates are much higher in the wizarding world, but still, it’s about fifty percent. Which actually interestingly enough is about the same odds as just a normal marriage. You would think more people, a higher chance of dissolution but it’s not the case. I’d really like to know what researchers think is the cause and--” She caught herself and blushed. “Sorry, academic fervor moment.”

Anathema squeezed her hand. “Never apologize, seeing you so excited is adorable. Also, that is a rather interesting problem. I’d like to know the answer myself.”

“The studies I did find weren’t all that big so I don’t know about how reliable their data is, but the numbers were replicated across multiple studies so it should be decently reliable, provided no error or bias made its way into the results of each study.” She shrugged. It wasn’t like the wizarding world was that large. They didn’t exactly have the numbers to do huge data sets, especially of something as uncommon as triadic relationships.

“Yes, well, the wizarding world and peer-reviewed research aren’t the best of friends.” Anathema frowned and shook her head. “Have you seen the research on mental health?”

“It’s absolutely terrible!” Both of them said at the same time.

Anathema laughed and nodded. “So it is. Merlin forbid you need any but the most basic treatment. If the standard potions don’t work for you.” She let out an irritated breath. “The standard potion for depression barely does anything, is costly to make and therefore purchase, and has little to no shelf stability. It’s been around since the seventeenth century and no one seems to think this is a problem. It’s an absolute disgrace.”

“Oh yes, totally.” If she were better at potions she might think of digging into that problem in her spare time, but while she was good, yes, potions weren’t her specialty and making something that messed with brain chemistry would require more skill than she could reasonably be sure she had. Considering her spare time was so abundant right now, it was a moot point anyway.

“Narcissa and I are developing a new potion right now actually.” Anathema sat a little straighter, looking at Hermione with excitement in her eyes. “It still has some stability problems, but I figured out that if you package it in vials inscribed with special runes that also have the effect of stabilizing mood, it not only keeps the potion fresh and in working order for longer, but it intensifies the effect. So instead of just barely being able to function if should in theory push people back closer to an even mood. Right now I’m working on actually circling the brewing caldron with runes to see if I can up the effect even more without introducing more side effects like upping the effective ingredients has in the past. I’m almost there, but there are a few runes that need changed out, I think before it will work as planned.”

Hermione looked at the other woman in awe. That was such a brilliant plan and something she would’ve never thought of herself, but it was so obvious now that Anathema had said something. Why didn’t they package more things with runes around them? Stasis spells only lasted so long on their own, but runes carved into the packaging wouldn’t fade and so long as nothing scratched the runes, they would maintain their effectiveness. Oh my god, Anathema was a genius.

And Hermione really, really wanted to kiss her in that moment. She blinked in a bit of surprise. Here she had just been talking about how she needed just a bit more of a kick and she would be fine. And. Here was the kick? Maybe?

“Hermione?” Anathema asked.

She met the other woman’s eyes, dark brown irises sparking with mischief. “Yeah?”

“Do you want to kiss me right now?”

She looked at the other woman owlishly. How had she even known that? “I might have been thinking about it.”

Anathema pushed herself up out of the chair and closed the gap between them, stepping in-between Hermione’s legs, hovering over her as she sat stock still on her desk. “Cara mia, as much as I love that beautiful mind of yours, I think this is one instant where not thinking too hard would be better.”

Hermione looked up at the other woman for a long moment, then down at Anathema’s lips. They were bright red again today, that same shade she’d been delighted to inform Hermione was called “Lady Danger” the week before. The shade and the name fit her so well. And now she very much wanted to ruin just how perfectly Anathema had put it on. She leaned up until she was a bare inch from her goal and then froze again. She knew that realistically it was stupid to worry about if Anathema wanted to be kissed, she was standing in-between Hermione’s legs after all, telling her not to think, but damn it, her brain needed to make sure. Her eyes flicked up to Anathema’s and the other woman just smiled down at her warmly and leaned in that last inch, and kissed her.

All of Hermione’s breath left her in one instant. Oh fuck, Anathema’s lips were soft. Her arms wrapped around the other woman’s neck without thought. Her skin was so soft. She kissed Hermione gently but thoroughly. Everything was just so tender and perfect. She sank into it and if she never came up for air she would be fine with that. She kissed back, exploring lips, learning the other woman and falling harder and harder for her by the instant. The only way it would’ve been more perfect was if Narcissa was there too and Hermione could have finished what they started a few days earlier and kissed her too.

Anathema pulled back after a few long moments with a dazed grin. “There, cara, not so bad, yes?”

“Not bad? That’s the world’s biggest understatement.” She leaned forward to rest her forehead against Anathema’s neck and sighed, breathing her in. Warm skin and hints of chamomile and lavender, she smelled so nice.

She laughed and ran her hands through Hermione’s hair lightly. “Perhaps, but I didn’t want to brag just yet. That is for later for other even more pleasurable activities.”

Hermione groaned. “Really, innuendo even after that kiss?”

“I must keep you on your toes, must I not?” She dropped a kiss on Hermione’s head.

“I’ll show you on your toes.” She pulled back just enough that she was kissing the other woman again, a bit more heat, a bit more intent, and a lot more perfect.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween and we earn part of our M for More Fun rating here. Ft Anathema being gay af with Narcissa.

Anathema floated into Black Manor with a dreamy smile on her face. She had just spent the better part of the last hour trading both knowledge and kisses with Hermione Granger. Oh, the woman had doubts, lessening by the day, but she had no doubts. She herself hadn’t had any doubts since the moment she’d seen the woman, much the same way how she had known that Narcissa would be hers one day too. It had taken them a few years longer than expected, but here they were. She always did get what she wanted after all.

“Narcissa,” she called, strolling lazily into the library. If Narcissa wasn’t in here then she was in her lab, but since she’d been at a meeting the odds were more heavily in favor of her being at the desk she favored in the library over the one in her private study, working away on some document or another needed for a business deal.

“‘Thema?” Narcissa’s voice was a bit groggy, but it had come from her desk. Anathema directed herself there to find Narcissa rubbing her cheek lightly and yawning. 

“Did you take an impromptu nap, bella mia?” Anathema’s heart clenched in her chest. The beauty of this woman made her want to compose sonnets in her honor, in Italian of course, because that was a far more romantic language than English with its half thrown together rules from different languages that made no sense. There was no lyricism in words stolen from their rightful place and shoved into a new one bereft of their true connotations. But this was an old discussion she’d had with Narcissa many times until Narcissa had learned Italian for her not long before they had graduated Hogwarts. 

“I must have?” She looked up at the nearest clock and blinked. “I last checked the time half an hour ago. I was tired but I was going to finish this stack of papers and then make tea.” She rubbed her face again. “I see that did not go to plan.”

Anathema bent down and kissed her. While it’d been almost a month since they’d gotten together, it still thrilled her that she could kiss the woman whenever she wanted. Though right now her lips were just a bit kiss bruised so she pulled in a startled breath at just how intense the feeling of a gentle kiss was. She pulled back after a moment, resting her head against Narcissa’s. “But did your meeting go to plan?”

“Decently considering the curse. I did get what I wanted to get done, done, but there was some added cost to what I was hoping, considering the slug asked if I could do more and I didn’t have time to control myself into saying it was theoretically possible but I would rather not instead of just ‘yes.’ It wasn’t a substantial markup, though, so still cheap enough. So we have a supplier for St. John’s Wort for the potion. He couldn’t help us with chamomile, though, but I think chamomile and lavender will be best found from the same supplier anyway. But the plant ingredients aren’t really the problem anyway.” She pulled away and scowled rather adorably. Anathema had to resist the urge to stroke her forehead until those little worry lines went away.

“Unicorn spit would be rather hard to come by, but pixie wings shouldn’t be too hard. Fairy dust on the other hand…”

Narcissa nodded. “Saffron may substitute, but honestly, it’s not as effective and the same price anyway. We might have to make a deal with the fairies ourselves to cut out the middleman, but that’s a move that will have to be much more planned and definitely after this truth spell.”

She set her hand on the other woman’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll figure out how to get the cost down, I have faith in us, bella amore.” She reached out and pushed the papers away with a smirk. “But enough of business for the moment, I want to tell you of my visit with cara.”

Narcissa laughed quietly and stood from her chair. “Fine, fine, but those do have to go out sometime today. It’s not even the end of business yet. Some of us don’t keep such come as you go Mediterranean hours. One would never believe that you did most of your growing up in England, not Italy.”

Anathema waved her off. This was another argument they’d had a dozen times before and would have a dozen more times in the future. Since Narcissa was smiling half of the times they argued, did that really count as an argument anyway? “Yes, yes, it won’t take too long. Let’s go make you some tea, yes? You’re the one taking impromptu naps, not me.” She pulled Narcissa into her side. Even as she teased her, she’d make sure they went to bed early tonight so her amore got enough rest. Between Narcissa and Hermione she was going to have her hands full making sure both of them made sure to take care of themselves. She didn’t mind in the slightest.

“I was also the one that got up at six in the morning today instead of lazing until nine.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh no, nine in the morning, such a late hour, whatever shall we do? I’m incurably lazy,” she said, deadpan. “It is not as if I run my own business ventures, I will just have to live off of your charity, bella amore. Take pity on me.” She laid her hand on her forehead and pretended to faint.

Narcissa, well used to Anathema’s dramatics just cocked an eyebrow and started walking. Anathema had no choice but to come with her, wrapped up as they were. “You were saying you wanted to tell me about your visit, not play-act your own death.”

“I can do both. You know how talented I am.” She wiggled her eyebrows at the other woman, delighted when she blushed. It was a shame Narcissa needed sleep. Though perhaps after the woman had had some tea...well it wasn’t late yet and the afternoon was only just waning. She had time to put her tongue to use in other ways besides taunting her amore.

“Honestly, I know you went to finishing lessons, I was there with you, but did you really?”

“As our instructor said, I am incorrigible.” She grinned.

“I also recall that.” She sighed and leaned further into Anathema. She took the other woman’s weight with ease, relishing the contact. “But if you’re so ready, I would like to hear your news.” She sighed. “Is it bad that it has been less than a week but I wish I had been able to come with you? I miss her.”

“Well, part of what I wanted to tell you was that she misses us as well, both of us. She was delighted to see me and asked after you. She’ll be just as happy to see you again. She’s making progress on the arithmancy of the spell.” She laughed. “I even caught a mistake she made, but I have a feeling you would have been more help solving the particular dilemma she had today. I did offer to help with a runic circle though.”

Narcissa perked up at that. “That’s brilliant!”

“Of course it is, it’s me we’re talking about.” She nudged Narcissa playfully with her hip. “But that is the same thing that Hermione said. Then I informed her of the fact that you took divination up through N.E.W.T.s to which she found just as delightful as I do.”

Narcissa groaned. “It had its purpose!”

They descended the stairs towards the kitchens. “Yes, mostly so I could tease you mercilessly and then kiss you so that you forgive me.”

“I read tea leaves too!” She blushed even harder and Anathema sensed something there that she was trying not to blurt out.

“Narcissa, amore, when exactly was the last time you read the tea leaves?” Anathema questioned, sensing that that was just what to ask.

Narcissa blushed harder and looked away, but didn’t pull away from Anathema. She found herself chuckling at the other woman’s antics, resting her head against the taller woman’s shoulder. “You told me about the leaves you read to make sure your potions business would be successful two years ago, but you haven’t said anything about reading them since. So. Just when did you read them to see what would happen with us and our cara?”

“Two days ago, after you left for the morning,” Narcissa mumbled. My, my, Narcissa never mumbled, at least not since they were much, much younger. The habit had been beaten out of her, perhaps literally. Druella Black had not been a kind woman, that much was for certain. 

“Ah, the morning after you almost kissed her then.” She nodded in understanding. 

“There was no almost about it, I did kiss her forehead, it was a very intimate moment!” Narcissa huffed out.

“And after such a moment you very much needed to know if it was as certain as you wished it would be.” She slipped her hand into Narcissa’s hair and scratched lightly, soothingly at the base of her scalp. Narcissa did as she always did when Anathema touched her like this, she melted, completely boneless into her arms. She pulled them to a stop so she could hold Narcissa more securely. “What did you see, bella amore?”

A bright smile broke across the woman’s face, unable to be contained as relaxed as she was. “Happiness, permanence, love,” she said.

Anathema closed her eyes at the words. Narcissa had yet to be wrong during a tea reading. It was as good as settled, so long as nothing in this curse investigation threw a wrench into things. “Beautiful, wonderful, thank Merlin himself. I…” She swallowed hard and opened her eyes, meeting the sky blue of Narcissa’s. “I kissed her today. More than once. She is...everything we could have hoped for. If...if we had to let her go, I was going to have a hard time with that, but oh, amore, I’m so glad to hear that.” She picked up Narcissa and twirled her around. The blonde witch may have been tall, but she was as light as a feather really.

“You kissed her?” Narcissa asked after Anathema finally set her down at the top of the stairs. 

“I did.”

Narcissa slapped her in the shoulder gently. “I am wholly jealous that I wasn’t at least in the room. Tell me everything,” she demanded, eyes longing, clearly wishing she could find Hermione and have her kisses too.

“About which kiss?” Anathema smirked, pulling them down the stairs towards tea, though she doubted that Narcissa would need it now after the news Hermione had finally been ready for a kiss.

“How many times did you kiss her?”

Anathema paused for a moment to count. The first one, the one after she’d put the first string of runes together, the one after Hermione had hit a breakthrough in her solution, then was the one where she pinned the other woman against her desk next, or was it the one where Hermione had come over to watch her work and then couldn’t seem to help herself? Hmm. “I may have lost count. At least a dozen, perhaps more. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t tackle you to the ground the next time she sees you to make sure the scales are balanced.”

“Salazar,” Narcissa breathed as they stepped off the last stair. “Good kisser?”

“She made my head spin every single time.” In fact, she was still more than turned on from the whole experience. It was a good thing she had plans for her amore in a few minutes that would take care of that nicely.

Narcissa groaned. “Just thinking about the two of you kissing is beyond my wildest dreams and yet I can’t stop trying to imagine it.” She licked her lips and looked to Anathema. “We have to ask her out as soon as possible. I want to take her to dinner. I want to kiss her under the stars in front of the gods and everyone else. I want to watch her kiss you. I want her pressed between us lost to sensation. And I want it as soon as possible or I might just go mad.”

“Mmm, I agree, bella mia. Tomorrow?” She arched an eyebrow, breath speeding a bit at the thought that tomorrow she could see her amore and Hermione wrapped up in one another. She might just need a cooling charm. It _was_ starting to get a little heated in the manor, wasn’t it?

“Yes, I’ll clear my schedule if I have to. I’m not waiting one more day.” She looked to Anathema meaningfully. “I already waited for the best thing that has ever happened to me, I’m out of patience now.”

Anathema pulled them to a stop, tugged Narcissa over to a blank space of wall, pressed her against it, and kissed her, hard and deep until they both were breathless, pulling back just to get a bit more air into their lungs. “I know the feeling,” she finally gasped out, tucking her head into Narcissa’s neck.

“Anathema,” Narcissa’s voice was a purr.

“Mmm?” she asked wordlessly, still staying tucked against the other witch firmly. 

“I don’t think we’ve christened this area of the manor, do you?” 

Anathema pulled back and looked at the other witch. “No, I don’t believe we have.” Mostly because there were a few scattered portraits in this hallway, not any important family members of Narcissa’s but still. Fucking in front of portraits always was a rather awkward affair. Or a rather large turn on, it depended on her mood. And today? 

Her hands drifted to Narcissa’s skirts, bunching her fingers in thick, fine fabric, and tugging up ever so gently. “Would you like to?”

“Please, I very much need you.” She kissed her again for a few long seconds before pulling back. “But you still owe me every single detail of your kisses with Hermione when we are done.”

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll mind sharing that with you. I don’t mind sharing anything with you, mia amore, but especially since I know that you will hear everything I say, and a second round will be an absolute certainty.” She hummed, pleased. “Perhaps I’ll tell you over that cup of tea we were supposed to get you so I can bend you over the kitchen island and have you like that. Would you like that, bella mia? I certainly would like to see you like that.” Once she dismissed the house elves of course. Poor dears weren’t paid enough to witness the sins she would commit with the woman she had pressed against the wall.

“We technically haven’t anointed that room either,” Narcissa said, already panting as Anathema’s fingers finished bunching her skirts up around her waist, plying a wordless sticking charm to hold them there, before her hands slipped to more interesting places.

“These panties, amore, really? You were planning on ending up on your back for me at some point today, weren’t you?” The wisp of lace thong Narcissa had on had quickly become one of her favorites. Her lover looked absolutely edible in them.

“Aren’t I always?” She smirked for a second, but Anathema put a stop to that, slipping her fingers between Narcissa’s already soaked folds, brushing against her clit.

“Fair enough, I suppose. Never stop, I love it.” Her fingers circled Narcissa’s bundle of nerves gently, building her up slowly, but she could tell that it wouldn’t take long, even with a gentle touch. Talking about kissing Hermione had done a very good job of turning her on. Anathema could most assuredly relate.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Narcissa gasped out, hips starting to buck into Anathema’s hand. “I am a Slytherin after all.”

Anathema laughed and changed in position, slipping two fingers into her love, thumb on her clit, fucking her with firm strokes, feeling her tighten with every curl of her fingers until finally.

“‘Thema!” Narcissa shouted, coming all over Anathema’s fingers, thrashing lightly against the wall. Anathema guided her through the aftershocks before withdrawing her fingers and bringing them up to her mouth, meeting Narcissa’s eyes as she licked them clean.

“Well, if that’s what just the mere thought of me kissing Hermione will do to you, I can’t wait to see what the details do.” She stepped back from the wall and walked towards the kitchen. In a second Narcissa was by her side again, legs looking a bit wobbly under her skirts, back in place again, but obviously crumpled.

“You mean what I’ll do to _you_ when I’m worked up.” Narcissa’s smile was just a touch cocky. She did have the skills to back it up, Anathema had to say, and the look...well she didn’t mind it in the slightest.

“Both is good, I think, don’t you?” She winked and walked through the doorway of the kitchen.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SWEET BABY JESUS PENNSYLVANIA IS A GLORIOUS BASTARD OF A STATE. HERE IS SOME GAY TO CELEBRATE THE UTTER RELIEF I FEEL THAT AMERICA ACTUALLY MADE A SANE DECISION. (not that I don't already post on Saturdays but shhhh)

Anathema smiled as they walked down Diagon Alley in the late morning sunshine. Summer was almost on them now and she’d picked out a bright royal blue summer dress she knew looked absolutely decadent on her. She couldn’t wait to see Hermione’s expression when she saw just how tightly it clung to her breasts, just how deep a shade of red she would turn. Narcissa had seen the dress before, and still she’d had a hard time looking away. Then again, now that they were together, well, why would they want to look away? Goodness knew that she had certainly taken in Narcissa as she dressed that morning, had almost made them late by ripping off the green silk and black lace panties that Narcissa had pulled on, but she’d been too eager to see Hermione again. There would always be time later for those to come off as she wished. If she was  _ extremely  _ lucky then Hermione would be with them when they did, but didn’t think the woman was quite ready for that step just yet.

Narcissa slipped back beside her, having ducked into a shop for a moment to discuss a recurring order with a customer. “That’s done then, should we head on towards the Ministry?”

Anathema glanced towards the position of the sun, almost noon. “What do you think are the chances that Hermione will forget to eat lunch today?”

Narcissa laughed and tugged her towards their favorite lunch spot. “Are you going to bring her lunch every day when we become official, darling?”

“Certainly on the days I can, won’t you?” Anathema set her hand over Narcissa’s and squeezed. “I bring you lunch every day you’re in lab and forget what day it is, let alone what time it is. At least this way, if you’re both in a room together I know my amori are eating.”

“I rather figure Hermione will have much the same response to that as I do. We are both capable adults who can feed ourselves, ‘thema, there’s no need to fuss over us.”

“It is no fuss. It is love. I like taking care of you both.” She lifted an eyebrow at the other woman. “You know this, how long have we been friends?”

Narcissa blinked and thought about it for a moment. “Fair enough, you have been taking care of me since that first day in the dorms first year,  _ but,”  _ she emphasized, “it has taken on a new level since we entered into our relationship such as it is now.”

“That’s because I held myself back at times. I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. It would’ve been rather obvious, would it not, that I cared for you in a way far more than a friend would, if I had cared for you as I do now all this time. Well. Not all this time. I don’t think I registered that I wanted you as more until...third year? Fourth year? Somewhere in there, I think, but the point still stands.”

“Hmm, but then it would’ve been standard. I don’t think I would’ve thought it weird unless someone commented on it later.”

Anathema acknowledged her point with a tilt of her head. “Well, now that you know what it means, let me take care of you bella mia, it is my pleasure and my honor. It soothes me to know that neither of you will be passing out from low blood sugar any time soon.”

Narcissa sighed fondly and nodded her head. She settled fully beside Anathema again, not guiding her forward anymore, squeezing their joined hands. “Fine, fine, I will allow this, mostly because I find it lovely and I love you for it even more. I love being taken care of, even though I protest it. You’ve never assumed me weak for such things as others would, which is where all protest stems from, I think.” She pouted at the truth curse making her say more than she wanted to.

“I need to take care of the people I love because it was how my mother took care of me, took care of everyone in the family really, father, grandmother, my uncle, everyone, and she took such joy in the act, you could see it on her face, I still remember the smile she always had on her face when she heard that something she did helped,” Anathema said, deciding to return honesty with honesty. It seemed only fair. “When I lost her right before Hogwarts...at first it was transferred guilt, like I could’ve saved her if only I cared enough, but then…” She met Narcissa’s eyes and smiled. “Then I realized that it was a great way to honor her, to be like her in that respect, but also because I had people I loved just as much as she loved our family, and taking care of them made me feel that same joy that I could see on her face, especially you, bella amore, and then later Blaise and Draco, and now Hermione. I love you dearly, madly, and truly and I want to take care of you and you of me for the rest of our lives.”

Narcissa’s eyes had a faint glisten to them and she shook her head. “You’re terribly romantic.”

“Thank you, Italians do romance best, but of course.” She smiled at her lover and leaned in for a quick kiss as they finally stopped in front of the cafe they wanted. 

“What should we get her?” Narcissa asked, reaching for the door handle.

An idea popped into Anathema’s head. “Get her the same thing you do, I think she’ll love it. But I also think she’ll love the pain au chocolat from the bakery around the corner, don’t you? Divide and conquer, amore?”

Narcissa’s eyes widened at the mention of pain au chocolat. “I think that can be arranged. It would get Hermione her food faster.”

“I’ll make sure to get half a dozen then.” Anathema smirked as Narcissa perked up even further. The woman was a demon when it came to chocolate, it was absolutely  _ adorable.  _

“Have I mentioned I love you?”

“I always could hear it again.” 

“Same thing as usual for you?”

Anathema nodded and stepped towards the corner. “Of course, see you in a minute.” She walked away with a smile on her face, humming lightly. It was rather impossible not to, she was just so completely happy such feelings had to go somewhere. Despite the inconvenience of this curse...well, she had no idea how long it might have taken her and Narcissa to fall together without it, and Hermione? They probably never would have, and that would be a damned shame. She wasn’t about to shake the hand of the man who cast this on her, but she wouldn’t be baying for his blood either. A good stint in Azkaban would be enough for her, let the other purebloods call for something harsher. She had faith their Hermione would break the curse soon enough, and then they would all be wonderful. She bit the inside of her lip, wondering just where she should take both her amori on their first date as a triad. Narcissa would probably fight her for the honor of planning the first date, of course, but the woman couldn’t resist her puppy dog eyes, now more than ever.

She slipped into the bakery and inhaled. Baked goods always smelled so wonderful, sugar and yeast and perfect golden browning. Her stomach growled and she laughed quietly. Maybe she might slip in a few extra treats besides the pain au chocolat, her eyes always had been bigger than her stomach when it came to sweets. She had a feeling her amori wouldn’t mind. She stepped up to the counter, looking over everything with a glance and placed her order. The man behind the counter looked at her with vague suspicion, nothing she wasn’t used to really. It had been worse before the war and her husbands dying had been true news, but after a war, well, a black widow wasn’t much in the face of war crimes. Rumors being rumors, no one ever had refused her service, at least. Narcissa after the war, and now even still to some extent...she’d had a tougher time of things. She was glad she could be there for her now, helping when things were tense. Having Hermione on their side, that would make it even better. She somehow doubted the woman would tolerate anyone looking at her partners with suspicion in her presence, funny as that was considering to others, her murders were rumors, but to Hermione, she knew better now and yet she didn’t seem to care. 

She smiled wider as she paid, thanked the man behind the counter even as her smile sent him a step backward, thanked the assistant that handed her the package of baked goods, nicely wrapped with a bow in a white box and took her leave. What really did it matter how people regarded her when she had what she wanted? The sun was bright on her face as she stepped out and turned to make her way back towards the cafe when a familiar tingle crossed her skin. Her eyes widened and she whipped around turning this way and that, trying to catch another glimpse of the man from before, but she saw no one.

Anathema cursed under her breath, in both English and Italian, Italian curses were more creative, but nothing quite held the anger of the word fuck. And now, being cursed twice, with a curse she wasn’t sure what it did now? Oh, she would have been merciful if he had only cast upon her once, but if this did her harm? If he had the  _ audacity  _ to curse her bella amore again? She would rip him limb from limb. She hadn’t made any of her husbands’ deaths long, she wanted them gone, and so they were, but this time she might make an exception. 

The feeling of eyes watching her dissolved and he was well and truly gone, wherever he may have been. Coward. Using a disillusionment spell to hide behind. She took a deep breath. Hermione would catch him when she broke the curse. For now, she had to trust in that and get back to Narcissa and make sure she wasn’t hurt or cursed again. She could do that. She would not go hunt this man to the ends of the earth. No. Narcissa was expecting her. Hermione would want to hear about this attack too. It would be important. 

That’s what got her to move back up the street, to slip into the cafe beside Narcissa and ask. “Are you alright? No one cursed you again, did they?” She looked her over with almost frantic eyes but Narcissa looked no worse for wear physically. But her eyes were extremely worried as she turned to Anathema, gripping her hands, tightly for a moment before running them over the rest of the witch’s body as if checking for broken bones.

“I am fine, I am livid and plotting to perhaps murder the man before Hermione can get to him, but otherwise I am fine. The fact that he hasn’t gotten to you does calm that ire a bit, however. If only husband five would’ve learned such a trick he might have lasted longer. It was a relief to slip the knife between his ribs and watch him bleed out. Even better to donate half his fortune to causes he would’ve detested.” She squinted at that, something about this felt...more like it was leading her to confessing more than just truth, more like it was directed more towards admitting her murderous tendencies. Interesting. It did fit with Hermione’s theory that this man wanted them to confess their crimes and go to jail for the sentences he thought they should’ve served.

“We need to see Hermione if he’s gotten to you again,” Narcissa started shoving her to the door.

“Bella amore, it has happened already. Nothing will be solved by rushing off without our meals. Unless it is for you to rush me home and then let me take off those lovely panties you put on this morning. That might solve some of my problems.” Well. That wasn’t murder. And neither was it something the original curse would have compelled her to say.

Narcissa looked at her. “But you are acting differently. That is a cause for alarm. We should go now. What if he’s put some kind of ticking time bomb in now? I can’t lose you, not when I just got you. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

“Miss Black?” A man in the cafe’s uniform said, holding a bag obviously full of food. “Your order is ready.” He held it out with a smile, eyes coasting down both her and Anathema’s bodies with appreciation, a bit too much appreciation, really. She sent a wandless stinging hex towards his backside and hid her smirk when he visibly jumped. That would teach him to stop looking at her love in such a way.

Narcissa took the food and nodded. “Thank you,” she said distractedly, already shoving Anathema towards the door again.

“That man wanted to have you,” Anathema rather blurted out as they emerged back into the sun. “But he’s not allowed to have you, only I am. Only I’m allowed to slip my fingers inside of you and make you scream. Especially after I’ve waited so long for it. Have I told you about how many times I wanted to take you into a little-used room in Malfoy Manor and just have my way with you? Oh, it was so, so tempting. A stinging hex is the least of that man’s worries if he ever looks at you like that again.” She looked at Narcissa a bit distressed. She’d always been very vocal about her sexuality, but this was rather pushing it, especially for a sidewalk in Diagon. Murder and sex, what did those have in common?

“Darling, are you sure you are alright?” Narcissa asked, practically running them down the street towards the ministry now.

“It feels just like the truth curse before, but it wants me to say slightly different things. I don’t know what connects them, murder and sex confessions are a bit desperate. Other than that, I swear to you I feel fine!” Well, Narcissa was trying to pull her arm out of the socket, but she didn’t dare voice that. She was just worried. When they got to Hermione’s office she would calm some, so she hurried along with her both to save her own arm and speed up that eventuality. 

Narcissa had them striding into the spelled assault department in record time, pushing her through the door, and not even greeting Hermione before she said, “Anathema’s been hit with another curse, we aren’t sure what it is, but she’s been saying things that the first curse wouldn’t have made her say.”

Anathema held up the box of pastries. “And we brought lunch. I bought far too many pastries because I can’t seem to control myself in a bakery and it’s only a miracle that I keep my figure considering.” She pulled in a breath. Sex. Murder. Gluttony. “Sins! It’s making me admit my sins now, I think.”

Hermione blinked and was up from her chair in half a second, in front of her casting diagnostic spells. “It’s almost the same curse,” she murmured after a few minutes of looking at the readouts. “But it’s been modified. From what I see here, the arithmancy has been refined, it’s targeting a narrower tract of the truth, if it’s leading you to admit your sins, then that would account for that.”

“Why modify it?” Narcissa asked, standing close to the both of them, worrying, hovering. Anathema reached out and took her hand and squeezed gently.

“Is anything else modified? Because if not, I would appreciate that news up front. Narcissa is going to lose her mind and I can’t have that, both because I love and care for her, and because distracted women don’t like sex and I did have plans for her later tonight that involved bending her over the bed and fucking her until she begged me to stop.” She rolled her eyes and shrugged at that admittance. They weren’t in public anymore, and the lovely shade that Hermione was now blushing as she looked between both her and Narcissa was well worth it.

“No,” Hermione said after clearing her throat. “Nothing else is different. This isn’t meant to cause harm. It will be able to be lived with much like the first version of the curse, just...well I don’t believe you’ll be safe for work at all this time.”

Anathema snorted. “I was barely safe for work to begin with. I’ll just tell my associates I’ve been afflicted with a curse and am recovering and if they need me to reach me by owl post.” She glanced to Narcissa. “I know it’s an imposition on your time but if I can’t draft a letter without telling someone how I either would fuck them, which considering I only really want to fuck the two of you in this room, I find doubtful, or telling them lovely details about my husbands' murders, would you help me, bella amore?”

“Of course, provided I’m not hit with this newer version.”

Anathema felt her eyes widening. Just what in the world would Narcissa admit under this version of the curse. Dear Circe, what ways had the woman imagined taking her during her sham of a marriage. She bit the inside of her lip to keep a straight face and to not just pin her up against the nearest wall and have her. She did have self-control, after all, just most of the time she didn’t see need to use it. It was much more fun not to, after all.

“Dear Godric, please, one of you like this is enough, I think,” Hermione said, stepping back. 

“I haven’t even been that much more graphic than normal, cara,” Anathema said with a smirk.

“Yes, well, I would very much like to make it through the work day, so that was graphic enough, thanks.” She bit her lip and Anathema stepped forward. She very, very much wanted to kiss her again.

“Cara, you got through the rest of your work day after I left yesterday, didn’t you? And that wasn’t just graphic words to arouse you, my lips were on yours, tasting you, touching you. Surely that must have been worse than a few words?” She reached out to cup the woman’s face. Hermione leaned into the touch without thinking and the older witch smiled. “It’s not as if I’ve told you about how many times I’ve thought of the day I’ll get to sit on your desk and push you to your knees and see the head of this division worship me in her place of business or how I’ve thought of tucking myself under the desk and teasing you as your officers come in and out and you would have to keep a straight face as I bring you closer and closer to orgasm.”

Hermione groaned. “This is what I’m talking about, both of you like this? I didn’t exactly bring a change of clothes and cleaning charms only help so much you know.”

Anathema glanced over her shoulder at Narcissa who was watching them with intent, hungry eyes, a bit of worry still there, but Hermione’s words had done much to calm her. She held out her free hand and Narcissa took it without question. She pulled the other woman forward until she was pressed against both her and Hermione’s side. Anathema relaxed into them both. Oh, finally, this felt...this felt more right than anything had before. Kissing Narcissa for that first time had been perfect, so many things had slotted into place, but this was an amplification of that.

“Fuck,” Hermione whispered quietly. “You can’t just say things like that, then pull Narcissa over too.” She fanned herself. “I’m burning up.” Her eyes slipped closed, already more than a bit glassy with arousal. 

“Do you want us to leave?” Anathema whispered. 

“Merlin, no.” A wave of her hand and her office door closed and locked, a little placard going up that asked her officers not to disturb her unless it was life or death important sticking to the outside. She’d used it before when she was working on breaking the curse when she needed to concentrate deeply and couldn’t abide the office noise, but this was certainly the first time she’d used it for anything else. Anathema felt her breathing deepening. Was this actually going to happen now? She couldn’t quite decide if she wanted it to or not. Hermione deserved a bed and dinner first, of course, all women did, but well...they had brought her lunch, and she wasn’t about to say no to taking the woman on her desk.

Her eyes shifted to Narcissa again. She nodded slightly and dropped her hand from Hermione’s face. She’d had her kiss, several of them, it was only fair that Narcissa get the first now, especially after being scared as she had been. She watched as Narcissa’s hand replaced hers turning Hermione to look at her. She watched them slowly drift towards one another before Hermione’s eyes slipped closed and her lips parted just a touch. Narcissa wasted no time leaning in the last half an inch and kissing her slowly, thoroughly. Anathema swallowed hard, oh Salazar Slytherin himself, this was a hundred times better than she ever imagined it. And now she knew  _ exactly  _ why Narcissa had gotten so aroused on hearing about her kissing Hermione, because if she had been ready to have her way with her amori before, now? She was practically on fire.

They drew apart after long minutes and Hermione opened her eyes, smiling with a grin that said there was exactly nothing going on in her head except just how good that kiss had been. Narcissa looked at Anathema with an absolutely lovestruck expression and her heart squeezed. Oh thank Merlin. She hadn’t thought about it until that moment, but if there hadn’t been a spark between Narcissa and Hermione beyond the physical attraction, she wasn’t sure what she would’ve done. But that was a worry that could come and go now. She leaned forward and kissed Narcissa, tasting Hermione on her lips and sighing at the taste. Oh, she could get used to this.

“Morgana, you’re going to be the death of me,” Hermione said, as they pulled back, her eyes intent on the two of them. “Seeing you kiss before was intoxicating, but this is just, my god I know what you both kiss like now and it’s  _ worse _ . Did I mention I didn’t bring an extra change of clothes today? I did right? It’s only lunchtime. I need to be here until at least five. I’d like to be comfortable.”

“You could always just let us take care of you, and then you would be comfortable,” Narcissa said, arching an eyebrow.

“Mmm, I thought I was the one cursed to blurt out her sins.” Anathema laughed. “But then again I think I have already said my piece on the matter, have I not?”

Hermione pulled her in for a kiss, rough and jarring and Anathema didn’t care one bit. She returned the kiss with equal fervor, felt Narcissa’s breathing quicken against them, her hand coasting down to her ass and squeezing, ripping a groan from her that Hermione caught in her mouth hungrily. She drew back after what could’ve been a moment or minutes to gasp in a breath.

“Do us the honor of accompanying us to dinner, Hermione,” she said, still breathless from the kiss.

Hermione closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “Merlin, yes, I very,  _ very  _ much want to…”

“But?” Narcissa asked, moving a piece of hair that had inched its way into Hermione’s face during their activities and tucking it behind her ear.

“I can’t date anyone who’s subject to an active investigation. We have to catch whoever is behind this and book them before I can go out with the both of you.” She sighed heavily. “As much as I complain, I do want to keep my job and not give anyone even a bit of a reason they can use to dismiss me and the changes I want to make. Godric, though, it is tempting to say fuck it all right about now with you two pressed against me like this.”

Anathema frowned but nodded slowly. “So then this should be the last time we snog you in your office until the case is closed then.” She brightened a little bit. “That will give me more time to come up with even better scenarios of just how we’re going to take you here when the time comes. Oh, I can be ever so creative when I want to be.”

Narcissa nodded with a faraway smile. “Salazar, can she be. I’ll remember that first time with her for the rest of my life and probably afterward. My paintings will probably talk about it to the right people.” She sighed and melted into Anathema a bit more. She took the other witch’s weight gladly. 

“Yes, well, I had practically our entire lives to plan. A few more weeks and you’ll remember it for the rest of your life as well, cara.” She smirked wickedly at the woman.

Hermione slipped away from them. “Nope, nope, nope, can’t do it. If you touch me for one second longer I’m going to just let you have me right here right now.” She let out a breath slowly. “You said something about bringing lunch?” She asked in a very obvious attempt to change the subject to something safer.

“We did,” Anathema said, holding up the box of pastries. “And dessert as well. Though disappointingly it most assuredly won’t be as good as I am sure you taste. Narcissa is a wonderful treat. I look forward to watching you try her, perhaps while I’m taking you from behind. There are a myriad of fun spells that allow a witch to feel how wonderful it is to slip inside her partner and I like to use them liberally.”

Narcissa shivered against her and nodded. “She truly does. Not that I mind at all. It’s wonderful to be joined in such a way.”

Hermione ran her hand through her hand. “Ok, ok, ok, I’m going to have to somehow get used to this and still be able to function. It’s fine. Totally fine. Not like it’s short-circuiting my entire brain, nope. You both will be here almost every day again and I’m just going to have to find a way to deal with all this very dirty talk,” she said, mostly to herself, but Anathema found it very amusing and endearing at once. She’d give the woman as much of a break as she possibly could, but knowing the curse and how often it twisted her words around to include some rather fun peaks into her fantasies so far, well, she wouldn’t be getting  _ that  _ much of a break.

“For what it’s worth,” Anathema said, “if there wasn’t a curse actively making me blurt out my loveliest of imaginations, this sort of flirting would be toned down at least four levels. Though you never really would escape from a suggestive comment and a hungry look every now and again. Narcissa received those even as we were friends. Of course I was mostly thinking about ways to sneak her off and have my fingers in her within the minute, but that’s beside the point in this example. I would be thinking the same with you as well, so it is an apples to apples comparison, I believe.”

“Well,” Hermione said, collapsing into her chair, “that’s something at least. Doesn’t exactly get me much, but it’s nice to know that after this is all over you can be persuaded to let me be a functional human in my office most of the time. I…” she swallowed visibly. “Once things...I…” She met Anathema’s eyes. “I’ve thought about maybe fucking you on my desk too? So I would be ok if that happened at some time? But  _ definitely  _ during after hours and a god awful amount of silencing charms and wards.”

Narcissa perked up at her side. “Of course, we would do whatever it takes to make you comfortable. It seems to be something we all want, christening this desk in a way that certainly wasn’t its designated purpose. I’ve certainly had my own thoughts. Sitting in the chair and touching myself as I watched you two together is a favorite.”

“The more you two speak words the less control I have. Can we please stuff food in our mouths now so less words can come out of them and I can maybe take a breath before I either combust or tackle the both of you to the floor? Merlin, what was it you said Narcissa at the start of this about only being a woman? It had something to do with Anathema. I’m definitely feeling that right about now, except twice over. Because there are two of you. And you’re the most beautiful witches I’ve ever seen. And all you’re talking about is ravishing me right here and now. It’s enough to test anyone.”

Narcissa laughed and held out the bag of food. “I got you the same I usually get. Anathema figured it would be something you would like as well. She gets slightly more off the wall concoctions.” She rolled her eyes fondly at her girlfriend. 

Anathema rolled her eyes back. “I swear everyone in England has the palette of a three-year-old in Italy. Morgana, try something new every once in a while why don’t you?”

“Eel isn’t something I’m rather willing to try.” Her nose scrunched up in that adorable fashion Anathema loved. 

“Ooooh, I love eel!” Hermione said, casting to empty the bag of its contents and set up their plates and utensils in an instant.

Anathema slipped in front of the container with her order, smoked eel on top of a summer salad. She smiled and opened the container, wiggling just a bit in her seat at the smell of the food and the thought of the fruit tart she had bought on a whim for afterward.

“Well, then there’s no eel but it is chicken in a sun-dried tomato sauce over wild rice.”

“That sounds great too.” Her stomach growled loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Though I think most things would sound good right about now. I skipped breakfast because I woke up late. The snooze button was too tempting this morning.”

“Mmm, we’re familiar,” Narcissa drawled, meeting Anathema’s eyes and raising an eyebrow.

Anathema actually managed to keep her mouth shut and just smirked. She hadn’t let Narcissa sleep until well past midnight. Well. More like they hadn’t let each other sleep. It had been absolutely delightful. She wondered if the nights like that would last until sunrise with the three of them. Merlin knew every time she was tired Narcissa seemed to catch a second wind and vice versa, and Hermione was younger than the two of them. She licked her lips. Oh, it would be wonderful spending an entirely sleepless weekend with the two of them, never leaving their bed.

“You have got to stop looking at me like that, it’s just as bad as telling me that you want me to ride your face or something.” Hermione turned rather scarlet and went straight to cutting up her chicken.

Well, Anathema was only a woman after all, and there was no way that she could resist countering that. Hermione would just have to have a little bit more of a heart attack. She was young, she would be fine.

“Riding my face would be nice, but I admit, I’ve always imagined more of a sixty-nine type situation between the two of us. Mutual pleasure is such a wonderful thing don’t you think?”

“Very mutual considering I really do love to watch,” Narcissa said, primly spearing a bite of chicken on her fork and then placing it in her mouth with a wink. She swallowed and continued. “I haven’t had much a reason to do so before, but the thought of watching you two just...I don’t need to have tried it to know that I will  _ very  _ much like it. Perhaps I’ll scream louder than you, who knows.”

“She is a screamer,” Anathema agreed.

“The food really isn’t helping the two of you stop speaking as I hoped.” She took a bite and chewed rather furiously, perhaps just to give herself something else to focus on other than the fact that Narcissa and Anathema were planning her ravishing from start to finish right now. “This is really good, where did you guys get it from?”

“Guliver’s,” Narcissa answered, “in Diagon. It’s our favorite lunch cafe. Even though some of us like to get eel and disgust their significant others.”

“You haven’t refused to kiss me yet, bella mia. In fact quite the opposite, I recall last week after we went out to lunch you did quite a bit more than kiss me. That tongue of yours is so very wicked when it wants to be and seeing your blonde hair between my thighs is as potent an aphrodisiac as the eel, probably more.”

Hermione started to lightly bang her head on the edge of her desk. “I might kill or kiss whoever is behind this spell. It really just depends on how long I have to listen to this and maintain some semblance of self-control,” she grumbled between soft bonks.

Anathema caught her head on the next down swing. “Would it help if there was chocolate waiting for after the meal?”

Narcissa sighed happily at the mention of her favorite food. “It certainly helps me.”

“What sort of chocolate?”

“Pain au chocolat, also brownies if that is more your style. Or a fruit tart, but there’s no chocolate in that. I can’t seem to control myself in a bakery.” She smiled.

“I’ve been benefiting from that for years,” Narcissa informed Hermione conspiratorially.

“That she has, she’s helped me stay as fit as I am now.” She gestured at her body, lean and toned as it had been in her twenties, save a few more stretch marks from having Blaise. She knew she looked damned good for any age, really. “You'll see that later, I’m sure.”

“Right back here again, oh we made it one whole minute.” She groaned and stuffed more chicken in her face. “I’m taking at least two of the pain au chocolats for this. I need the strength.”

A knock on the door had them all turning. “Come in,” Hermione called sitting up straight, blush immediately fading from her cheeks as her professional mask slipped on.

Amelia stepped in through the door. “Sorry to interrupt you Captain, but we just got word of a suspect on the move towards a portkey office and we need your signature stat on these to authorize a team to bring him in. He’s considered dangerously unstable so he’ll need a bigger team than usual.”

Hermione gestured the woman forward and took the papers, reading them over quickly before signing them and handing them back. “Good luck Amelia. You have everything to put him away, yes?”

Amelia nodded. “I just finished last night and was about to go get him this morning but then.” She gestured at the papers.

“Well then, at least he had the decency to wait until you had everything.” She smiled.

“Right, lovely when they do that.” Amelia smiled and then walked out of the office, going to shut the door again, but then there was Barrow’s voice demanding, “Leave it open, bird.”

Anathema could practically feel Hermione cringing. She glanced back at the woman to see her more tense than she ever had been before. This man was not good news then, she looked around carefully. Easily six things she could silently kill a man with in this room, most of which a man wouldn’t see coming. She dropped her cutlery and turned back to the door, ready.

Barrows stepped in, a clearly rough and tumble man with an ugly face and the sneer of someone who had an even uglier attitude. She could see why Hermione might not like the man.

“Captain,” he said sarcastically. “If I might have a moment of your oh so precious time if you’re done wasting government time and money on these bints.”

She didn’t turn but she felt Hermione’s magic flare. The idiot in front of her didn’t seem to notice though, because he kept advancing as if nothing was wrong. Typical man then, never realizing something was wrong until it was far too late. That worked for her though, oh it certainly worked for her.

“We’re all entitled to a one hour lunch break courtesy of our contracts, Barrows, and as such this isn’t a waste of time, so I suggest you hold your tongue on commenting on how I use my time. We both know I put in more hours than you, and those that you do put in aren’t well spent, so I wouldn’t exactly poke the bear, yes? And as for my guests, they are victims of an active case of which I am readily working on and you will address them properly or this will just be another note in your file for that disciplinary hearing I hear you have coming up. Considering the things that are already in there, it’s not a big thing, treating victims with respect, not compared with everything else you’ve done, but it just might be the tipping point between suspension and getting fired, mmm?”

The man rolled his eyes and then turned to her and Narcissa and bowed in possibly the least respectful way she’d ever seen the action performed. “Excuse me, Mrs. Malfoy, I mean Miss Black and Mrs...I’m sorry you’ve had seven last names, right, is it Miss Zabini now?”

Anathema narrowed her eyes, wand in her hand almost unconsciously, pointed directly at him. She felt the moment he saw it, he started to tremble. She laughed. Of course a man like this would be a coward.

“It is  _ Lady  _ Black and  _ Lady  _ Zabini and I think you well know that, you sentient pond scum. I’ve killed men for less than forgetting to address me properly, or haven’t you heard the rumors? I haven’t killed anyone slowly, but considering how you just addressed myself and Narcissa as well as Miss Granger, I think you might have just made the list as the first. Congratulations, you now outrank the man who put this curse on me. A prestigious honor for a worm such as yourself. Possibly the only one you’ll ever receive.”

“Fucking bitch!” He snarled, still shaking.

“So I’ve been told.”

Narcissa now had her wand pointed at the man, looking as feral as she had during the last year of the war, fighting for her and her son’s survival. Anathema had to admit it was arousing to see, especially when she was defending her. Even if unnecessary. She reached out and lowered Narcissa’s wand. Of the two of them, she had less to lose by pointing a wand at an officer of the law. The last thing Narcissa needed was a rumor getting out right when she was really starting to mend her reputation. 

“But those aren’t words that are appropriate for a workplace, are they? Would you perhaps like to use your big boy words to state why you actually came in here or would you just like to insult us more and dig your own grave deeper? I’m not picky which one you choose, really. One gets you out of our hair faster, the other makes sure that when I come for you, no one will really care that a washed-up has been has died.”

He sputtered and looked at Hermione, demanding she do something. Anathema had just threatened an officer of the law after all. That was if not explicitly illegal, bordering on such. Another head of the department, one of the good ole boys would have her in cuffs already, but Hermione would never be one of the good ole boys thank Merlin and Morgana.

“What?” Hermione asked innocently. “Sorry I’ve been focused on this chicken it’s rather delicious, though I am more excited for dessert, who wouldn’t be, it smells wonderful.”

“I-I-I, you know what, fuck you too bitch. I came in here to apologize for a few weeks ago and disobeying your orders, but fuck that. The disciplinary committee will find in my favor once I tell them about this  _ bullshit _ going on in here. Closed-door meetings with dark witches almost every day, fucking thought you were supposed to be one of the good guys. Is their pussy really that good? Fucking disgusting carpet munchers.”

Hermione’s smile was a slow and cold thing. She swished her wand and Barrows’ voice echoed out of the tip, “fuck you too bitch. I came in here to apologize--” she cut it off with another wave, duplicated the recording with another swipe, and then sent the recording off to a file. “Now who do you think they’re going to believe, the head of the department with well-documented proof of every single transgression that’s reported in your disciplinary file, or you with your wild conspiracy theories about how I’m sleeping with these two women that just scream ‘man trying to cover his own ass so he doesn’t get sacked’ because I’m betting considering everything, including my reputation for being in the Golden Trio...it won’t end well for you.” She stood from her chair and circled around to stand in front of him. “You’ve made it clear you don’t like me to anyone who will listen, made it clear that a woman should never be in charge, made it clear that you don’t give a rat’s ass about any woman who comes into this department with a complaint because ‘they all probably deserved it’, made it clear that you’re just an officer because you get off on having power over people, and never once did you stop to pause on how that would look if it all came before the committee. You didn’t even think to change your ways when you got demoted to this department, didn’t even think to be at least a little quieter about it at the  _ very  _ least. You’ve made it very, very easy for me to build a case against you. The second you didn’t listen to me the first day Narcissa came in your fate was already sealed with me, but let me tell you what you’ve earned coming into my office like this.”

She poked him in the chest with her wand, magic whipping around her like a cloak, moving the tips of her hair in a wind that wasn’t really there, magic sparking in her gaze. Anathema thought she looked attractive normally, but like this she was a force of nature. Circe, she wished this case was solved right now so she could grab Hermione and take her home right this very instant, but alas, she would still have to wait. A shame if there ever was one.

“You’ll never have a job in law enforcement again. I have contacts in every department from here to Bulgaria and beyond. If there is a place I’ve missed, believe me when I say, I will find out, and the second I do you won’t have a job there anymore either. I’m going to forward a copy of your disciplinary file to every single department in the ministry, every shop in Diagon and Hogsmeade I know the owners of, every pub and restaurant too. By the time I’m done I think your options will be either garbage collector or sewage line maintenance worker, both very important, very essential positions in society, nice union work of course, but those will be what you have left to pick from and you should thank me that I’m even allowing you a choice because working with you for the last year has been a test of my patience, and to have you insulting these women on top of that? Get the fuck out of my office and don’t bother to come back until your hearing next week. Have fun with your job applications.” She waved her fingers and when he didn’t immediately move, she waved her wand once more and he was lifted and unceremoniously thrown out the door.

It shut behind him softly and she immediately slumped and groaned. “Godric, I hate that man and will be so glad to get rid of him.” She moved back behind her desk and sank down. “I could really use that chocolate right now.”

Anathema opened up the bakery box and handed her one of the pain au chocolats. She took it and scarfed a big bite down in an instant.

“It’s a shame I don’t get to worship you for just how arousing it was to see you like that,” Anathema said, resuming eating now that the vile man had been thrown out.

Hermione just stared at her for a long moment and took another baked good, groaning quietly. “The death of me, both of you, assuredly. I just.” She took another bite and continued softly mumbling to herself.

Anathema glanced at Narcissa who had much the same expression as she was sure was on her own face. This witch was far too adorable for her own good, and she was theirs, thank Merlin. Now they only had to catch the man who’d cursed them and they could actually  _ do  _ something about it. She wasn’t sure who was going to be more grateful, her and Narcissa, or Hermione herself.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad sin cursed Anathema was a hit with ya'll. There be more Hermione almost dying inside. Because of who I am as a person. Enjoyyyy.

Hermione yawned so wide her jaw cracked and she winced. She’d been up late the night before and now was up just as the sun was starting to rise. She was days away from having the arithmancy solved, she could feel it. It had been another two and a half weeks, but it was within spitting distance now. So she had stayed up late, trying to get that last little bit closer before she’d fallen asleep at her desk and then had to drag herself home when she’d woken up an hour later with a crick in her neck. She might have slept in to make up for the late night since it was Saturday after all, but the only way to get the really good stuff was to be up with the sun.

She shuffled down a side street in a suburb of Muggle London near to where she’d grown up, following her nose, even though she knew where she was going. The entire block always seemed to smell of fresh bread. She hadn’t had a second to spare since Anathema and Narcissa had brought her lunch a couple weeks before, but the pain au chocolat had given her an idea and she finally had the time to execute it.

Hermione pushed into the shop, already crowded in the pre-dawn light. She hadn’t expected any different really. She shuffled through a few people to take a number and then shoved herself back into a corner to wait, looking at the display case to see what they had today. Narcissa had said that Anathema had taken them to the only Italian restaurant she’d found in the city that actually pleased her on their first date. Hermione had no idea if she’d found any Italian bakeries that thus pleased her as well, or if she just stuck to more standard fare. It wasn’t like you couldn’t come across a decent English or French bakery every other block in London, but Hermione just happened to know of this place since she’d lived nearby and she’d loved it growing up. She hoped it was as good as she thought it was, that it would please Anathema. She felt her heart grow warm and she smiled, thinking of what a nice surprise it would be and how happy it would make her. If it was good anyway. Narcissa would be happy just to have something with chocolate in it. She’d woofed down the remaining four pain au chocolats and sat back with an angelic smile on her face, wholly satisfied. That hadn’t helped Hermione’s state at the time, it honestly wasn’t helping her now. But she just wanted to make them happy. 

Also maybe to keep their mouths at least somewhat occupied. Two and a half weeks of Anathema on this new curse had her going a bit insane. How badly she wanted to just let the woman have her way with her was increasing with every single day, with every single word, every brilliant insight into the runic circle she was working on, every tender touch that so carefully kept to the line of professional to obey Hermione’s wishes. And then there was Narcissa too, who tried to refrain from egging Anathema on to try and let Hermione have  _ some  _ measure of peace, but every now and again would get a glint in her eyes and drop a comment that had Hermione in the bathroom ten minutes later splashing cold water on her face just to get her shit back together again. Because Narcissa was brilliant in her own right, witty, a calm balance to Anathema, but placid like a riptide. Her touches carried even more heat, skirted farther towards being inappropriate with an air of seeming innocence but underneath a large helping of Slytherin deviousness. She had some feeling that Narcissa thought it motivation for her to work harder on the solution...and she was probably right, but it didn’t help that the woman was there almost every day to help and during the time when she was there, she was driven to more distraction than usual, even more so if Anathema was there too.

She was falling in love with them. There was no denying that now. She didn’t want to anymore. Her heart leapt every time they walked in her door. Her days got better. She wanted to spend the rest of her life making them happy in whatever way possible and having them do the same in return. She’d only really had one serious relationship and it hadn’t felt as intensely right as this. She wanted to make it work. She wanted this damned case to be over so she could strip Anathema Zabini and Narcissa Black bare and make them scream her name. She just  _ wanted _ .

“72!” A loud, grey-haired grandmother called, barely taller than the counter.

Hermione glanced down at her number, 72. She hadn’t even realized that much time had passed. Merlin, was she  _ that _ lovesick? Godric, if she ever told Narcissa and Anathema about this they would both melt at the sweetness and then never let her live it down. Were it the end of the case she might let it slip because she was sure that she could wrangle a few kisses out of the resulting pouting she might do, but this wasn’t the end of the case. So she stepped forward to the counter and held up her little slip with 72 on it and pointed to the things she wanted, definitely amaretti and biscotti and then she glanced around quickly, sfogliatella too and some chocolate filled bombolone to top it off. She smiled at the old woman as she handed the box over and paid with a few pound notes and then slipped back into the street. Anathema and Narcissa were meeting her at ten this morning, hopefully another full day of work could them to the finish line. She’d dart out for tea, the good kind that didn’t come from a depressing office kitchen, right before they arrived and then they could have a snack before they went on with their work. She sighed happily and set off up the street. The nearest safe apparition point was a bit of a walk, but it was shaping up to be a lovely morning so she didn’t much mind.

She apparated into Diagon, not quite wanting her walk to end. It was still early and while she had work to get done, exercise wasn’t about to do her any harm. Diagon was just waking up, tea shops and bakeries already bustling with the first morning customers, cafes starting to open up, retail shops still a few hours from opening their doors. It was as peaceful as the place ever got save in the middle of the night. She liked this quiet bustle as she walked towards the Ministry. She had paperwork to do this morning to catch up, though really she just wanted to focus on the arithmancy. Her job would wait for nothing though, and the quicker she focused on paperwork the better. She could probably have it all done in time for Narcissa and Anathema to show up. That was when it was easier to work on the arithmancy anyway, with Narcissa there to consult. She smelled chai drifting out of her favorite tea shop’s door as someone bustled out onto the street with a cardboard cup. Well. Maybe she would slip in and grab herself a cup now and have a biscotti as breakfast. Couldn’t hurt, and Anathema and Narcissa would be happy with the fact that she hadn’t skipped a meal.

She slipped into the shop into another line, holding her box of pastries. She needed to go through some resumes too to narrow down the applicant pool for Barrows old spot. She smiled to herself, feeling a frisson of pleasure rocket up her spine. He was finally out of her hair, out of law enforcement for good. Her little recording of him had left little doubt to what his disciplinary hearing should result in, complete termination with no severance. Served him right. She hoped he enjoyed his new profession. She wondered if he would pick sewage maintenance or trash collector. Personally, she would choose trash collector, but she wasn’t as full of bullshit as the man was, maybe he would be happier around his own kind.

She ordered then collected her own cup of tea and then slipped back out into the morning, walking slowly, enjoying herself and letting the caffeine wake her up the rest of the way. She’d put the word out to those affected that she was near a solution and to have a bit more patience with her as she worked. She hadn’t really heard any grumbles from them, but considering she’d heard from the other curse breakers in the ministry that they had no idea how to break it, well, they didn’t really have much of an option but to trust her. Still, with the number of people, including her loves, well, giving everyone hope had taken at least a bit of that pressure off her shoulders. She’d break the curse, solve the case, and be on with it. And then maybe she could actually sleep in on a Saturday again. She snorted at that and took another sip of tea.

She was almost at the ministry when a spell hit her. She had her wand out and aimed, circling quickly, looking for anything out of the ordinary but saw nothing. It was early in the day, the man responsible was probably fully charged up and easily able to keep up his disillusionment charm while casting his spell. Ok, if he was coming after her? Well then there were different rules of engagement now. She twisted her wand, casting out in a circle around her a silent finite, but no one showed up. She frowned. Her wandless range was rather large. He must have fled the second he cast on her. She cursed. There were five different ways he could have gone from here invisible as he was. She only had a twenty percent chance of picking the right direction and even then she would have to hope that he hadn’t apparated away in the meantime. She gripped her wand tightly. She had to figure out just what had been cast on her and then she could go from there. She gripped her tea and her box of pastries and hurried to her office. So much for a good morning. Ruddy bastard. She’d make sure assaulting an officer was added onto his charges and then she would feel better about all this.

She set everything down on her desk and quickly cast on herself, looking at the diagnostic readouts. The truth curse, the original version, not the one he’d cast on Anathema. He’d left her alone so far until this point. She wondered if someone had let slip that she was close to breaking the curse. Anyone who knew much about magic would know that if she broke the curse she’d get the caster’s imprint, but only ministry employees knew about the database. Her search of people matching Anathema’s description paired with office gossip about who was dissatisfied with every former dark witch and wizard’s sentencing had yielded more than twenty people. She’d been going through their whereabouts at the times that people had been cursed, but with over twenty people that was taking time and the arithmancy needed to be done anyway. She’d deemed it a better use of her time to solve the problem first. But now she looked at the list of names. Was the man on this list? She wondered if she could get clearance to question them all under veritaserum. Probably not, it was still too many. She cursed and sank down in her chair.

Anathema and Narcissa were not going to be happy about this. She had a feeling she was going to have to talk Anathema down from murder. She, after all, had murdered men for less than calling her Mrs. Zabini, and this was a hell of a lot more than that, cursing both of her loves and herself. She would stop if she asked, but well, there was no way there wouldn’t be at least some murderous intent. Hermione, for her part, didn’t want him dead, she wanted him in Azkaban where he belonged, where he couldn’t hurt her loves, and where he was working off his crimes in a fair and equitable way. Considering how many people he’d cursed? He wouldn’t get out for a long, long time, and that was enough for her.

She took a sip of now cold tea and sighed. She supposed she should work on that paperwork now even though she didn’t much feel like it. She ran a hand through her hair, pulled herself to her desk and set to work, slowly but surely, forcing herself to focus and carry on. She’d feel better when Anathema and Narcissa were here, though.

Narcissa walked through the door at exactly ten in the morning and Hermione relaxed instantly. Anathema was a step behind, smiling at Hermione as she entered the room. Hermione stood up, grabbing the paper cups of tea she’d grabbed five minutes before and had placed under stasis, walking over to the two of them and glancing down at cups to make sure she handed the right tea to the right woman. Narcissa was more partial to Lady Grey and just a touch of sugar, Anathema preferred Lapsang souchong with a bit of milk, though Hermione didn’t begin to understand why. If she wanted a smoky flavor she’d rather just eat a bit of barbeque instead. But Anathema’s face lit up when she lifted the cup to her nose and inhaled.

“You remembered our tea orders. Merlin that’s sweet and makes me want to do ungodly things to you. I think licking tea off of your body would be a wonderful way to start.”

Hermione felt the pushing urge to answer honestly even as she bit her lip to stop herself. Ah, this was a bit annoying then because she really didn’t want to say, “I mean tea isn’t exactly the most conventional thing to lick off of me, one would think chocolate a better idea. Narcissa would certainly like it better and there wouldn’t be a risk for burns. That and tasting chocolate on your lips instead of that god awful tea would be preferred.” She frowned and huffed. If she encouraged Anathema she might just get stuck trading dirty suggestions for the rest of the morning and that wouldn’t be productive, nor would it help her try and resist pinning the woman down and having her way with her on the desk.

Narcissa squinted and tilted her head, immediately honing in on the fact that something was wrong. “Hermione, are you alright?”

“I’ve definitely had better mornings. It’s been the first morning since we brought in the last death eater that I’ve just randomly had a spell thrown at me in the streets. My reflexes are still good, I mean I do practice, but I didn’t catch the man who’s doing this and now I find myself under the same influence of the truth spell you both are under, which while it probably won’t be that inconvenient because I do tell the truth most of the time, I would like the luxury of holding my tongue so I can’t help Anathema tease me into an early grave by modifying her sexual suggestions to fit my liking more.” She sighed and slumped a bit.

“You’re under the truth curse?” Anathema was at her side in a second, brushing her hands over Hermione lightly, making sure she was unhurt. “I’ll kill him when we find him, I swear to Circe I will. No one can curse our cara mia and get away with it.”

“Anathema, no please, no murdering. The murders of your husbands are covered under the fact that this is an illegal truth spell and the fact that even if someone were to investigate now there isn’t any evidence just like there wasn’t any before, but this would be different and I really don’t want you to go to jail at all, let alone before you get to act on all of the suggestions you’ve been making because I’m literally desperate for you to do so.” She blinked. “Was it easier for both of you to control this because you had practice controlling what you say?”

Narcissa shrugged one shoulder carefully, looking at Anathema as she completed her careful pat-down of Hermione to make sure she was alright. She was, really. Nothing else had been cast on her, she’d double-checked. It was just the truth curse, that was it.

“Somewhat, but the longer you live with it the easier it is to stop the flow of words for the most part. You can’t get out of babbling too much at some points, but it does become less frequent and less effort to manage.”

“Good to know. I really would rather not be speaking a book every time I open my mouth no matter how much I love books. We have other things to do besides listen to me talk.” She gestured at the board. “I’m almost there, maybe today might be the day I actually solve everything and then it won’t really matter that this curse is on me. It’ll be off before anyone I don’t like has a chance to possibly use it against me. I don’t really care if you two are witness to whatever I may blurt out, I trust you completely, but my squad?” She laughed. No. Definitely not her squad, especially after some of the good ole boys left riding desks until they retired were more than miffed that she had thrown Barrows out on his ass. They had liked him, saw him as one of them, and they were looking for a way to get back at her. She wasn’t about to give them one.

“Hermione,” Narcissa said, setting aside her own cup of tea and stepping beside Anathema, taking one of the hands Anathema now held, and squeezing both of them under her pale fingers. “Are you really alright? If it’s been years since you were attacked like this I’m sure it was a complete surprise and it must not have been the best way to start your day.”

Hermione swallowed and tried to nod. She was alright, or at least she would be after a few days to remind herself that she was the brightest witch of her age, that no harm had come to her, she would break the curse, and she would catch the bastard who did this and she would go back to her life where she hadn’t been attacked in literal years. No one really cared all that much about the department head of Spelled Assault. It wasn’t like she was Minister. She would fade into the background again and keep working her way up as she planned.

But she couldn’t nod. Her head wouldn’t move. And that’s when she remembered that the truth curse not only affected words but actions. She silently cursed and shook her head. “No, I...I was scared, at least a little bit, right after it happened. I mean I didn’t let it get to me and I tried to go after him, but I didn’t catch him this time. But I was just having a nice morning and I went to this Italian bakery I know from growing up to grab some things that I hoped Anathema would like and I just. I wasn’t expecting it, no and it definitely ruined the good day I was having.” She swallowed hard, waved her door closed and then stepped into both Narcissa and Anathema and wrapped her arms around them. She relaxed even further at their touch, feeling wholly safe in their arms. “But I felt better when you both walked in the door, and I feel even better now like this. I really can’t wait for this case to be over so we can be together and I can kiss you both again.”

Anathema and Narcissa held her tightly for a few long minutes, one hand in her hair, another stroking her back lightly. She really wished that they had time to take a nap right now. She was sure that she would fall asleep instantly, and goodness knew she could use the sleep. But that was for when this case was solved and she could lie skin to skin with the both of them and truly revel in it. For now, this would have to do. But only for now.

She stepped back slowly, cast to reheat all of their tea, and then turned to grab the box of pastries. She offered it shyly to Anathema. “I always thought this place was good, I didn’t know if you knew it, and I hadn’t heard you talk about a good bakery you’d found, so, maybe this one will work out?”

Anathema took the box from her with a soft smile. “Thank you, cara mia. I’m glad you thought of me. Now, let’s see what you bought.” She flipped open the lid and smiled wider, grabbing an amaretti a second later and all but shoving it in her mouth. “Pardon my manners,” she said once she’d swallowed the bite she’d taken. “I love amaretti like Narcissa loves chocolate.” She ate the rest of it with a smile on her face. “And these are delicious, where was this place, cara? With amaretti like this, I need to know of it.”

Narcissa inched forward and looked in the box, curious. 

“The donuts are filled with chocolate,” Hermione said without needing prompting.

Her replying smile was blinding as she took a bombalone and bit into it with a hum. “Merlin, this place is wonderful.”

Hermione plucked a pistachio and chocolate biscotti out of the box and grabbed up her tea. “I’m glad it’s to your liking. Really glad. You two have been wonderful to me bringing me lunch, I only wanted to try and return the favor.”

Anathema reached out to cup Hermione’s cheek. “There is no need to ever return any favor we give you. We do so willingly because you are our cara. That being said, we won’t ever say no to a kind gesture. Or amaretti. Or chocolate.” She laughed and looked for all the world like she wanted to kiss Hermione, but held herself back. “They are our weakness.”

Narcissa hummed around a mouthful of chocolate filling. She swallowed and then leaned in to place a lingering kiss on Hermione’s cheek. “You are perfect, darling, as you are. No need for bells and whistles. Just being with you is a gift. Though amaretti and chocolate.” She joined Anathema in laughing.

“Amaretti and chocolate. Well, at least I have a good base gift to build off of for our anniversaries then.”

They all stared at each other for a moment, taking in the words. Words that meant that Hermione saw more than just a short stint with them, but years and years ahead of them. Narcissa and Anathema glanced at each other and smiled, so full of love, so heartachingly tender Hermione was a hair's breadth away from saying fuck it and kissing them anyway. But instead she turned towards the board full of arithmantic equations and took a deep breath. The sooner she got on with this the sooner she could have them like she wanted.

“All work and no play makes Hermione a dull girl,” Anathema said, noticing where Hermione’s gaze was, snatching another amaretti from the box but setting it aside and taking out her own work on the runic circle she was close to finalizing. The last few lines of arithmancy seemed to be needed to set it completely to rights, but Hermione had made progress since she’d last seen, so she’d have more to work with.

“Yes, well, you’ll find I’m not a dull girl when the time comes,” Hermione retorted absently, leaning forward to write down a possible next step she’d thought of overnight. 

“Oh?” Anathema whispered in her ear, so close to her now that Hermione could feel the heat coming off of her again. “What ideas have you had, Hermione? You haven’t been very forthcoming with them. Do you want to be? Should I just tell you all the things I’ve thought of and see what pops out of your mouth as correction? Would you like me to do that, cara? Because I can, oh I would love to, actually. I have so many ideas but feedback, knowing what you would like, that could only make the ideas better. Collaboration is the name of the game in learning and in sex, no?”

Hermione shut her eyes, chalk stretched out to write the next character, hand shaking just a little too much to do so. “If you do that, I don’t exactly have the self-control to keep from pinning you down and doing whatever you suggested.”

“Who said it would be you pinning down anyone?” Anathema’s teeth caught just the edge of Hermione’s ear lobe, so light and so quick she could have imagined it as wishful thinking.

Hermione looked at her out of the corner of her eye. “Because Narcissa needs to be held down more often than not, she likes giving up control to someone she trusts, doesn’t she? And you...you would like it because it would be a challenge every now and again. You like being the one pinning your lovers down, but that would get boring after a while if things weren’t flipped upside down. Narcissa could and wants to, but more as a treat, birthdays, winter holidays, things like that. I’m the brash Gryffindor here and I  _ love _ a challenge. I love being held down and I love being the one on top, but if I’m not on top, you’ll have to earn it. Am I right?”

“Sweet Circe,” Narcissa whispered, fanning herself. 

“You’re not wrong.” Anathema chuckled quietly. “Are we that obvious?”

Hermione tilted her head for a moment, considering before, “No, not really, I’m just trained to read people and well, fighting a war didn’t hurt those skills either. And I’m hyper attuned to you both. Narcissa lets you take charge of conversations more, she’s quieter overall, which honestly could go the opposite and mean she’s the one in control in the bedroom, but pair that with how you touch her, it makes it a more definite conclusion that she’s very comfortable with you in charge in any situation, only reclaiming it when she wants to.” She shrugged. 

“Mmm, very observant, even I hadn’t really noticed those things until you mentioned them. But that does leave the question of how exactly do I earn you on your knees for me?”

“Mostly by being the lovely person you are.” She turned to look at her full on. “The rest is in the moment, kiss me and pin me up against the wall so well I can’t move? You want me on my knees, I’ll get on my knees. Sloppily pin me so I can flip you around and pin you myself and have my way with you? Well, that’s probably how it’s going to happen. Unless I just need one or the other after a day of work, but I would most likely express what I needed beforehand instead of making it spontaneous.” She shrugged a shoulder. “Open and honest communication is the foundation of good relationships after all.”

“And so it is.” Anathema licked her lips. “Being tied up?”

Hermione swallowed hard. “I’m...not sure.” She glanced to Narcissa who immediately understood and came to her side and grabbed her hand.

“Not since Bellatrix?”

She shook her head. “I think I like the thought of it, but I’ve never actually tried it. I haven’t really trusted who I was with enough to be able to handle me if it went badly.”

“Ok then,” Anathema said, “we’ll leave that for later after we’ve gotten to know each other in the bedroom and stick to other forms of play. You having to hold the headboard and being punished if you let go does hold some merit as an idea.”

“And what exactly do you have in mind for punishment?”

“I very much like spanking,” Anathema said with a hungry grin.

“I very much like watching a spanking,” Narcissa said, glancing between the two of them and licking her lips.

“I very much like being spanked so fair enough.” She glanced to Narcissa. “Do you like being tied up?”

“I do, yes.” She raised a light eyebrow in question.

Hermione looked back to Anathema. “Tie her up and make her watch but unable to touch herself to get any relief?”

“Oh, cara, that’s evil. I love it.”

Narcissa shivered, obviously biting the inside of her cheek trying to stay composed. “I might not mind such a thing.”

Anathema started to laugh. “I still want to murder the man responsible for all of this, but if it gets ideas like that out of you? I won’t mind, even if it’s only for a little while.” She gestured at the board. “Now, before I get blamed for completely side tracking you, I suppose you wanted to work on this?”

Well, now that they were off and running on fantasies, she really didn’t want to do that anymore, but she was right, she should get back to work. Should. In a minute. First she was going to have to go splash some cold water on her face again. She looked to Anathema’s grin and Narcissa’s still dazed look. Worth it.


	12. Chapter 12

A week later Hermione was staring at the final variable. Just a little more, something wasn’t right again, but when she fixed this it would be solved, finally after literal months. She heard the sound of heels, Narcissa, maybe? But her stride was off somewhat. Had she gotten hurt? And there was another set of footsteps too, obscured somewhat by Narcissa’s clicking heels. Was Anathema wearing flats? Perish the thought. She snorted to herself and then peeked around her chalkboard towards the door to watch and sure enough, Narcissa came through. She smiled at the woman and stepped out to greet her and then pulled up short when Narcissa pulled another woman into the room, she wasn’t exactly sure, but it might be Rosetta Hawthorn, the wife of a snatcher who’d been far too good at his job for comfort.

“Narcissa, hello, what’s going on?” Hermione asked, looking behind to see if Anathema would show up, but there was no sign of her. She sighed and looked to the other woman. Even with the strange footsteps, she’d been hoping it was Anathema, it was rather a disappointment that it wasn’t. “Is Anathema ok?”

“She’s fine, darling, just at home in bed, she stayed up late last night putting the last touches on the runic circle. It works now, which is good because apparently there is a third version of the curse.” She pushed Mrs. Hawthorn forward. “Tell her exactly what you said to me.”

“Sometimes during the war I’d report people to Sol even though they hadn’t done anything so we’d get the extra money that came with bringing them in. I’m not really sure what happened to them, but I know a couple were found out to be secretly working for the resistance and were killed.” She looked at Hermione with fearful eyes, trying to back out of the room, but Narcissa was there to stop her.

“And how often do you find yourself admitting crimes you performed?”

“Once an hour or so, sometimes more if I’m speaking they’ll just blurt out. It’s worse than the first spell. I hate it so much just like I hated Maude Boots, burned her house down and blamed it on Death Eaters so she didn’t live on my street anymore.”

Hermione stared at the woman in horror. “Did you serve time in Azkaban for any of this?”

“Community service for the people I turned over. I’m still spending every weekend working for Muggleborns for Change, I got so many hours. No one thought to look into the house burning once I said death eaters did it.” She shrugged.

She let out a breath. Ok. Well. At least the woman had paid and was still paying for some of her sins. She looked back to Narcissa. “And why in the world did she tell you about it?”

“She came up to me and expressed her condolences because she’d heard that I was under the truth curse as well. Her husband and Lucius worked together a decent amount during the last year of the war. I think she thought that meant it would give me some favorable outlook on her, with the ass-kissing as a bonus. It did not. But, she did prove to be useful in other ways. Who did you say you saw cursing you yesterday, Rosetta?” Narcissa’s voice was flat, but looking at Hermione her eyes held an excited spark.

“Well, I’m fairly certain it was the father of that boy, you know the one who died during the Triwizard Tournament? Oh, what was his name? Dig something?”

“Amos Diggory?” Hermione said, eyes widening. He was on the shortlist she had, he was one of the loudest complainers about how people were sentenced. Coworkers said he still ranted on an almost daily basis even six years on when others had finally calmed down in the intervening years. It hadn’t been enough to do anything with, but an eye witness, as unreliable as they could be, fitting with all the other data she’d gathered. Her eyes flicked to the board. She was minutes away from cracking the spell and then she’d have the magical signature she needed. She’d like to have Anathema’s runic circle too just in case the failsafe tripped again, but if she solved the magic completely it wouldn’t be strictly necessary as long as she was careful and...well. Rosetta Hawthorn was there and she would want the curse broken and Hermione didn’t feel an overwhelming need to make sure she was safe like she did with Anathema and Narcissa...it was perfect.

“Narcissa, come look at the last part of this, I can break the curse today I think and get the magical signature we need to compare it to Diggory to confirm.” Her eyes darted back to Mrs. Hawthorn. “Would you like your curse to be broken, Mrs. Hawthorn? And also would you give an official statement to what and who you saw yesterday casting this third variant of the curse on you?”

Mrs. Hawthorn nodded quickly. “I’d love to have this spell off of me, I can’t even begin to tell you the amount of trouble it’s caused me. Who knew people were such sissies about having the truth told to them.” She shrugged.

Yeah, she wasn’t going to worry herself too much about Mrs. Hawthorn. She was beginning to shape up to be a real gem. The fail-safes were easy enough to thwart if scary at face value. She’d live. That was all Hermione really needed to know to move forward.

“Wonderful.” She glanced back to Narcissa who erased a sign, hesitated for a moment and then replaced with the opposite. She looked over the whole solution and nodded. “I think it's done.”

Hermione stepped beside her and read over it line by line, excitement growing with each variable until she hit the last one. It was perfect. “Well then, Mrs. Hawthorn let’s get your statement and then we can get on with breaking that curse.”

She sat down and took her statement quickly, leg bouncing under the desk. If this all worked out she could be on a date with Narcissa and Anathema this weekend. She bit her lip hard to keep from shivering at the thought. She could feel Narcissa’s eyes on her, heavy, seductive, and wondered if the woman knew exactly what she was thinking as she checked over the statement to make sure it was complete. She had her wand recording the entire conversation to later be used in court as well, not that Mrs. Hawthorn wouldn’t be called to the stands, but having a back up never did hurt. She flicked her wand to file the recording and the paperwork and stood up.

“Alright, with that done, we can move on to breaking the curse.”

“Great let’s!” Mrs. Hawthorn said. “Should I stand or stay sitting or what should I do? I don’t know much about curse breaking only about casting curses. They’re a lot easier to cast, especially growing up with a mother like mine. She loved the dark arts. Taught me from a young age. Think my first spell was a curse. Mother was so proud.”

Yeah, Hermione really didn’t want to hear about this. She glanced up at Narcissa and arched an eyebrow. The older witch rolled her eyes. Somehow that tracked, some wanna be pureblood house thinking that it was dark magic that was the most important thing, but really it was wealth, status, and power that made a house great. Your child’s first spell didn’t need to be a dark one when you were the most noble and ancient house of Black.

“Right,” Hermione said, cutting her off. “Just stay sitting, that’s probably best. Sometimes when spells break they cause a bit of wooziness, especially if they’ve been in place a long time. Not sure if your magic will think that you’ve been under this for a long while considering it technically is a new version of the spell, but at its base, if it’s anything like the second version they’re similar enough to count as the same thing.” She cast a few diagnostic spells to be sure and then nodded. “Yeah, same base.” She glanced over at the solution she had and squinted.

She pulled Narcissa to her side and cast the spells again so the other woman could see what she saw more easily. “Do you think we’ll have to modify anything?”

Narcissa squinted at the readouts for a minute before shaking her head. “This is more to attack the base spell, the modifications to what truth is spoken preferentially shouldn’t affect that since it’s still the same truth curse underneath.”

“I didn’t think so either, but double-checking never did hurt.” Well sometimes on tests second-guessing was the devil, but this had more to do with not hurting a human being so that was worth a double check certainly. 

She looked towards Mrs. Hawthorn. “I’m going to start then, nothing should be painful, it will just be uncomfortable since I’ll be poking around in your magic. If you feel any actual pain, or feel your magic draining, tell me immediately.” She knew she would probably sense it before the woman would, after all, she knew what to look for now, but still.

“Ok,” Mrs. Hawthorn said. 

Hermione started casting before she could say anything more. She took a deep breath, swirling her wand in just the right way, letting the arithmancy guide her. She saw the strings of magic now, plunged forward, grabbing at the heart of them, easy to see now that she’d worked everything out, it was dark black and throbbing, curled intimately with Mrs. Hawthorn’s magic, feeding into it, not allowing anything to flow by unscathed. No wonder it was so hard to get around the spell. She saw the fail-safes, twisted up, ready to spring if triggered. She took a deep breath, and with another wave of her wand, they dissipated easily. Phew. With those gone, it would be easy to break the rest without worry. She set about unwinding the magic, equations directing her moves until she hit that last layer. She smiled wide, brought up her wand to pull the magical signature from it, and with one final slash, the curse was broken and at the end of her wand was a little white wisp of magic, waiting for her to do with it what she pleased.

She turned to Narcissa and had to keep herself from whooping in pleasure and relief. She’d done it! It had taken her forever but she’d finally done it. Now having broken it, she could see why it had taken so long for Diggory to cast the spell. It probably would have taken most of the six years since the war to craft it. She knew he had a decent level of skill in spellcraft, had to work in the Department of Magical Creatures since there was always some new creature or hybrid popping up that needed a counterspell to manage them, but he wasn’t someone extraordinary. If he had made this himself it would’ve taken him years to get right.

“Well then, try to lie, Mrs. Hawthorn, see if everything is lifted as it should’ve.”

Mrs. Hawthorn thought for a second before saying, “Maude Boots was my best friend and I wish she still lived on my block.” Her eyes lit up and she shot out of her chair. “Oh thank you, it’s been months since I was able to do that. I didn’t know lying could feel so good!”

Hermione hid a grimace. Lying didn’t feel good. Rosetta Hawthorn was not going up in her estimation even now that she could lie and put on a better facade. “Well then, we have your statement and the curse is broken. I think that should be all we need from you today, we have your contact information if we need anything else.”

“Thank you again! Should I tell the others that you’ve figured out how to break the curse and they should stop in to see you?”

“Wait a couple days.” She nodded towards the magical signature still sitting atop her wand. “I have to finish out this case first. Wouldn’t do to figure out how to break the curse only for whoever did this to find another curse to cast, would it?”

The woman shivered. “No, Merlin no. I’ll wait until I see that Diggory man’s arrest in the Prophet then before blabbing on then.”

Hermione nodded her thanks. “Wonderful, have a nice rest of your day then,” she said in clear dismissal. She wanted to be alone with Narcissa for the run to the magical archive. She wanted only the other woman to be there, though Anathema being there too would be better. She frowned slightly. She really should go off and do it now, yet she really wanted to take the time to go wake up Anathema. She sighed heavily. Professional duty was sometimes a bitch.

“You too!” And then Mrs. Hawthorn disappeared out the door, whistling happily.

She turned to Narcissa again, waited until she couldn’t hear the other woman’s shuffling steps and then, “She’s a wretched woman, and I’ve only known her for thirty minutes.”

“She doesn’t get any better upon knowing her more. In fact, even without an honesty spell, she gets worse.” Narcissa’s face scrunched in disgust. Her eye flicked to Hermione’s wand. “So that’s all you need to prove it actually was Diggory?” she asked.

“Yes, should be quick too considering we have an eyewitness. I mean if she was wrong, it will take a bit more searching, but we do already have the narrowed down list to check and that’s only twenty or so people, so that should only take a few minutes. If we have to go beyond that, though, that’s when it’ll take a day or two to get a match, but before the weekend no matter what we should know.”

Narcissa’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “So we should have reservations ready then?”

“Please, please do.” She snorted quietly. “That was the first thing I thought of too when I pulled out the essence. I can’t wait for this to be over and for us to be on a date. I want to kiss you again so badly it physically hurts.”

“Hmm, well then, we’ll just have to have reservations on every day this week just in case the case ends before the weekend, won’t we? Can’t leave you waiting. That just wouldn’t be acceptable.”

“Narcissa, do you want to kill me before we even go out on our first date, do you? Because sometimes it seems like you might just want to.”

Narcissa smirked, stepping forward so she was only a few inches for Hermione. Her fingers found Hermione’s chin, tilting her face up just slightly so their gazes met. “I don’t want to kill you, not literally, no, but physically? If you can move after Anathema and I are done with you after our date, we haven’t done our jobs as your partners correctly, I shouldn’t think.”

Hermione had to clench her thighs together or else she might’ve actually fallen over. “So just metaphorically kill me. Got it. Unclear if I can handle even that right now without actually just stroking out and dying.” She took a deep breath and managed to ground herself enough to get back to the task at hand even with Narcissa’s hands still on her. “Come on, the sooner we get this to the archives to start the search the sooner it’s over.”

“Allow me a minute before we go? Anathema would want to be here, I would think. Though she might just want to be here so she can sweep you off into a corner and kiss you because that will be case closed enough for her. Unclear, I wouldn’t mind no matter the case.”

“Listen, I’m going to let you get away with melting my brain like that solely because I was also thinking of Anathema being here and missing her. So yes, go get her, but don’t take too long. I don’t want anything to happen to the signature in the interim.”

“Noted. I’ll be back as soon as possible then.” She hurried out of Hermione’s office and back towards the atrium apparition points. 

Hermione sank down in her desk chair and put her head on her desk. So close to being over. She could make it. She could. Still, if she squealed into her free hand for a moment she could be forgiven. That was just what Narcissa did to her. It was only going to get worse with Anathema there.

And Anathema walked through the door fifteen minutes later, looking a bit tired still but so excited. “Bella amore said you broke the curse!” Her eyes found the wisp on the end of Hermione’s wand and perked up further. “Oh wonderful, you have! Of course, I believe bella mia, but seeing is believing after all. Oh, Narcissa,” she said turning towards the door and a rather amused Narcissa finally walking through, “we have to figure out what restaurant we’re going to take her to, I know you said Noire, but I think Vita might be better.”

“Well, since we aren’t sure what day the case will officially be over since they have to bring him in, we’ll make a week’s worth of reservations, so we really don’t have to choose.”

“Wonderful idea.” Anathema turned back to Hermione. “Now, where is this archive?”

“Follow me.” Hermione actually wasn’t sure if Narcissa and Anathema would be allowed in the archives, but well, she was Hermione Granger, and while she didn’t use her status as a war hero much at all, this would be worth it if she had to. She wanted them there with her when this was solved. Without them she’d still be working on the case. They were instrumental after all. If Narcissa hadn’t been the one to walk in, who even knew if she would have this case. Merlin knew no one on her squad would’ve been able to solve it since it hinged on breaking the curse. Amelia and Rose would have gotten to the twenty names for sure, perhaps a bit farther with interviews, but then they would’ve been stuck for actual evidence linking any of them to the crime. He’d slipped up of course being seen, but Narcissa had been the one to bring Mrs. Hawthorn in. She didn’t think the woman would’ve come on her own. So yes, it was only fitting that they came with her.

She walked them to the elevators and then down to the sub-level that housed the Department of Mysteries. The archive itself wasn’t in there, but it needed the same level of protection to make sure it wasn’t misused. She felt the same eyes on her as she always did when she was down here. She was sure there was some Unspeakable somewhere whose job it was to watch this floor, but she’d never caught them actually doing so, figured she probably never would, which was fine enough for her. She was never going to be on this floor without a legitimate cause. No one stopped them as they entered the archive and Hermione felt her heart beating in her throat. They were only a few seconds away from finding out if it was really Diggory or not.

She walked up to the access panel and waved it to life with her hand. It lit up, a soft almost golden glow in the sparsely lit room. Anathema and Narcissa came to stand at either one of her shoulders, watching as she brought up the matching spell and carefully lowered her wand into it. The spell took the essence from her wand and waited for her search command. She pulled up Amos Diggory’s name after a bit of poking around and held her breath.

“Go on, cara mia,” Anathema whispered.

“Even if it isn’t him, this archive will find who it is and we can have you,” Narcissa added.

Hermione let out the breath she was holding so she could suck in a breath. Boy, that was not helping, but still, she cast to set the matching spell into motion and twenty seconds later the screen turned green. A Match. A percentage popped up a second after that, 99.99%. It was him beyond a shadow of a doubt. Quickly she cast what she needed to in order to document the result for the case and then turned back towards Narcissa and Anathema, both of them smiling wide at her.

“We got him. Now we just have to arrest him.”

Anathema’s smile morphed into a smirk. “I’m looking forward to it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One step closer to actually being able to be together, but you know. Plot things first. :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all are very hungry for that date. Unfortunately, considering I've got the wordy bitch disease, not quite there yet we still have the plot (TM), but also because I have the wordy bitch disease, the date lasts like...4.5 chapters. Which now that I look at the chapter count doesn't make math sense. Have I, somewhere along the line, forgotten to count one? PROBABLY. Oops. Anyway, the point is, there's more flirting in here to kill all of you and Hermione, but there is a reward at the end of the rainbow starting like...*squints at notes* chapter after next.

Anathema and Narcissa were in Hermione’s office the next day before the woman in question had arrived for the day. If she were Hermione she’d do her level best to make sure her two civilian almost-girlfriends would be left out of the arrest of Diggory just in case something went wrong. But Anathema wasn’t about to allow that, neither was Narcissa for that matter. They’d both watched as Hermione gathered all the evidence she’d needed the day before to take it to the Wizengamot for an arrest warrant before the end of the day. They hadn’t been able to go with her, but they had waited for her to return in her office. She’d come back holding a warrant, looking tired and annoyed but overall triumphant an hour past when the day was supposed to have ended. Apparently, the judge had rather thought that Amos Diggory was a stand-up man and all of Hermione’s careful police work had been a mistake. Hermione hadn’t told her the name of the judge, probably for good reason, but she’d find out on her own and pay that judge a visit for questioning her amore and her attention to detail and integrity. Honestly. If there was any witch that should be believed on first blush it was Hermione Granger.

But considering how late she’d come back, rounding up a team to come with her just in case the arrest went sideways would be difficult, better to do in the morning when Hermione could gather people she actually trusted. Anathema had nodded along with the reasoning, but being that Hermione was a Gryffindor and not a Slytherin, well, it was clear that it wasn’t all of her reasoning. Which is why they were here sitting in her office, with Hermione’s favorite tea under a warming spell and a croissant beside it, waiting at the absolute crack of dawn when Anathema would usually rather be asleep. But she wasn’t about to let Hermione go off on her own, not this time. Not when they hadn’t gotten a chance to start anything. She trusted Hermione to be safe, she did, but right now it was about more than trusting Hermione. It was about hexing that vile man who had cursed both of her loves and her for that matter, who had scared Hermione, distressed Narcissa, and wreaked a kind of havoc on their lives. Sure it might have led to their relationship coalescing, but she had killed a man for less than calling her Mrs. Zabini, two slights against her amori? She’d get hers in time and she needed to be beside Hermione to do it.

Hermione stepped into her office, unlocking the door that Anathema and Narcissa had relocked twenty minutes before. She was humming under her breath and it took her a full three seconds after opening the door to realize something was wrong. She blinked up at the lights already on and then turned to find Anathema and Narcissa sitting there. She scowled a bit and sighed, looking absolutely adorable while doing so. Anathema wiggled in her seat just slightly. Soon she was going to be able to kiss this woman whenever she wanted, they just had to take care of this last thing first. And if it was taken care of by tonight, they’d be going to one of the restaurants she’d picked out for their first date, oh just how perfect. She looked over at Narcissa and smiled. Everything was just so perfect. She reached out and took her bella amore’s hand and squeezed, waiting for Hermione to say something.

“I should have known you’d be here.” She gestured back at the door. “Why relock it though?”

“It seemed rather bad form for someone to find us in here without you,” Narcissa said, arching an eyebrow. “We’re just such big, bad, scary Slytherins after all.”

Hermione snorted and made her way over to her desk. “Fair enough, it probably wouldn’t have been the greatest look, but honestly? You’re welcome in my office any time. I’ll sort out any misunderstandings if they arise. Though…”

Her eyes coasted over both Anathema and Narcissa and Anathema squirmed just that much more in her seat. She could be an infinitely patient woman, but towards the end of the waiting, right when what she wanted was just within reach, then she got just a little antsy. And Hermione’s look was not helping her.

“It will be rather well understood that you’re welcome in my office soon enough. Wizarding England isn’t exactly a place where a secret stays a secret for long, especially when I’m not about to hide the fact that I’m in a relationship with the both of you after this case closes.” She shrugged a shoulder, removed the warming charm from her tea and picked it up with a soft smile. “Thank you by the way.” She gestured with the cup before taking a sip.

“Of course, darling,” Narcissa said, smiling in return. Anathema bit the inside of her lip to keep from kissing her senseless for no reason. She was just so very excited for today and her excitement had always been very physical. 

Hermione drank a few sips of tea before sighing again. “So. I could try and tell you to stay here while I go and bring Diggory in and close the case and then we can go out to dinner, but that isn’t going to be successful is it?”

Anathema lifted her shoulders, reaching out her free hand towards Hermione, the universal sign for ‘what can you do.’ “This man cursed you, cara mia, and Narcissa, did you expect us to sit on the sidelines now?”

“Not really, but I might have hoped you’d see reason.” She tilted her head considering. “Not that you two aren’t formidable duelists in your own rights, I’m sure. I’ve seen Narcissa in action at least.” Her eyes landed squarely on Anathema. “And I have a feeling you don’t murder six men without knowing your way around a wand, even if you stayed away from magically killing them for evidence reasons.”

Anathema saw Hermione blink at that and shake her head. She had wondered what Hermione would think about her rather murderous past, but it seemed like, for the most part, she didn’t much mind. Mostly because Anathema had only killed men that really had deserved it on a global scale, even if her own reasons that had tipped her over the edge had been rather shallow. She hadn’t necessarily planned to kill them all...but well, she did only pick terrible men for a reason. Hermione, after the war, after everything, Anathema could see that black and white was not how she saw the world. She could love Anathema, and maybe she already did, goodness knew she was well on her way to loving the younger woman. She was sure Hermione could love her, she was, but there was some lingering doubt still considering, well, Hermione did know what she had done at the surface, but no details, and only the peripheral motive. What if knowing those things would change that? She needed to know. But now wasn't the time. They would have time later though, before she removed the spell, before it would cause a conflict of interest for her cara. Then she could put these worries to rest and just love Hermione Granger with all that she was and everything would be perfect. 

“But it really would be safer for you if you stay here.” Hermione arched an eyebrow at them, waiting.

Of course, both Anathema and Narcissa laughed and shook their heads. 

“Fine, I thought I’d ask. Since I know who you are as people and that if I insisted you stay here, you’d just follow me and sneak around, and I wouldn’t know where you were to protect you, we’ll just not do that then. You’ll come with me. I can probably reason it in under Anathema having seen Diggory casting at her the first time, and that she’s much more trustworthy than Rosetta Hawthorn.” She looked at Narcissa and just shrugged. “You’re her girlfriend and you were the first to report, so I suppose that’s strong enough reasoning to have you there too.” She snorted out a breath. “Not it really matters, but I’m not having this bastard get off on a technicality in the paperwork on his arrest.”

“Whatever you need to do, cara, we’ll gladly follow along with.” Granted they were still under the truth curse. There hadn’t been time to take it off just yet, and quite frankly since both of them had grown used to this curse, it could be done later after this all was over and they had Hermione back at one of their manors, snuggled up somewhere, relaxed and content. 

“As well as we can under the curse. The reasons you gave are true enough, but they aren’t exactly our reasons for being here,” Narcissa added. 

“I just need you to nod. Should be all that’s needed really. At least I hope it is,” she mumbled more to herself. She sighed and stood. “Come on, I’ll need approval from the division head for this operation. Might as well have you there to sell the point that you should be actively involved.” She pinched her nose. “Though I’m not going to be able to say that you’ll be kept back from the action until it’s all over, which is probably what he’ll want to hear.” She frowned at them. “It’s very lucky I like the two of you so much otherwise this would be an enormous pain.”

Anathema snickered. “We can certainly make it up to you later, cara. How many orgasms do you think would bring us even? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? Twenty would be easy to split, ten from me and ten from Narcissa.” She looked over at the blonde witch and arched an eyebrow. “Does that sound good to you, bella amore? Your mouth is sinful, you can probably pull at least four from her just from the first exploration. Goodness knows you certainly had me a mess that first time. I’d imagined your head between my thighs so much that when it actually happened, it was even more exquisite. Oh, watching you eat our cara Hermione out it will be--”

Hermione cut her off before she could finish, how rude. Anathema smirked to herself but didn’t do anything more. “I may have imagined that exact scenario but please, _please, Anathema_ , if I’m going to get through this day, I need you to keep a reign on that as much as possible. I keep an extra pair of underwear in my desk now, I have learned, but for most of the day we won’t be in this office so it’s not going to do me any good.”

“Well we’re still in this office now,” Narcissa said, haughty look on her face and mischievous glint in her eyes.

“We have things to do, please, _both of you_ , one of you isn’t even under the sins variation of this,” she pinned Narcissa with a stare. “I really don’t want to go into a meeting with my boss turned on beyond reason. Let’s finish this case and then you can apparate me straight to whoever’s bed, I don’t care which, and fuck me seven ways to Sunday, just let me rest today of all days.”

Anathema looked at Narcissa and they both nodded slightly. She’d get until Diggory was in chains or her preferred, deader than a doornail, and then she wouldn’t know peace again. Well, she would behave long enough to get them to dinner. She was a lady after all, and she would treat Hermione as such. And a lady got dinner before any more...carnal activities took place. If she had her way, Hermione would want for nothing at all, but she had a feeling the woman wouldn’t take too kindly to having everything provided for her. She was independent, and she liked that very much, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to spoil the woman every chance she could. Maybe her first present would be an enchanted sex toy….mmm yes, that sounded lovely.

Hermione relaxed when they looked back at her. “Thank you, also, this somehow makes me want to kiss you more. I’m literally not going to win today, am I?”

“Well, I mean you are going to arrest Diggory,” Narcissa deadpanned.

“And after that, you go to dinner with us,” Anathema added.

“Yes,” Hermione conceded, “but, but.” She ran her hand over her face. “I think you both know exactly what I mean and I’m just gonna leave that there for now.” She opened her eyes and looked at both of them, taking a step around her desk and looming over the other two women. “And just for the record, while I like to be the golden girl almost always, if teased enough I’ll have you both on your knees for me and you’ll like it.”

Anathema blinked a bit and then smiled brightly. “Oh, that would be wonderful.”

Hermione groaned and walked towards the door with slightly shaky steps. “Come on then, I might die if this isn’t solved by lunch.”

Anathema pushed herself out of her chair, helping Narcissa up before they both followed after Hermione farther into the bowels of the DMLE. They walked back through magically carved out halls, the area getting less chaotic and more executive feeling as they went. Hermione stopped about halfway into one of these nicer halls and knocked on a door.

“Come in,” said a gruff voice.

Hermione cast one last look back at them before opening the door and pushing in. “Hello sir, is now a good time to talk about the operation I discussed in passing right before the end of the day?”

“Yes, yes, sit down,” the older man said, thick jowls quivering with his gesture. 

Anathema looked at the man. He wasn’t someone she immediately recognized, so probably not a pureblood then. She knew all the pureblood families in both England and Italy and most of France too for that matter. Unless he was from some disgraced house, but she doubted that. He didn’t have that air about him, that desperate to regain what was once lost sense of purpose. No, this was a man well used to working for a living, now enjoying the perks of a higher status office. She could certainly work with that if need be, money and power she could trade in spades if such things were needed.

His eyes flicked to Anathema and Narcissa then back to Hermione. “I suppose you have a reason they’re here?” His voice was a little sharper than it had been before, but nothing so uncouth. She’d certainly heard worse.

“Yes, sir,” Hermione said, sitting.

Anathema gestured for Narcissa to sit in the other chair in front of the man’s desk and she stood behind her. No one ever thought her wand was at the ready, they never saw it, never saw her draw it from a pocket or a sleeve, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t half a second from being in her hand at all times. You learned such things when your husbands were not good men and it had saved her a time or two elsewise. She’d be able to protect Narcissa like this almost instantly. Hermione, she did trust the other woman with her training to be able to fend for herself, but if she had the chance, it would be easy enough to protect her too from this vantage. This man in front of them probably wouldn’t even dream of attacking, but a Slytherin trusting an unknown person? Hippogriffs would sooner lose their wings.

“Alright then, what do you need and why?”

Hermione launched into her explanation, who she wanted to take with her, what they would need, and just why Anathema and Narcissa needed to be there, and all the requisite paperwork, neatly organized, laid out in chronological order. Anathema didn’t even know when the woman had had time to do that. She hadn’t walked in with anything, just grabbed the folder off of her desk. Had she done it in an instant, or just put it all in that way to begin with. Hermione Granger on a mission was methodical, and she very much would be lying if she said it didn’t turn her on. Shame she couldn’t lie just yet. Such a shame. Whatever would she do? She suppressed a laugh.

The man looked up at both her and Narcissa. “They’re still civilians even if they’d had some...combat experience.”

“Yes sir, they’ve been told that they’ll have to stay back at the perimeter.” Anathema saw Hermione’s shoulders were tense, hoping that that would do. It was technically the truth after all. They had been told they should stay back. They just weren’t about to listen to it. Part of Hermione’s tenseness was probably from holding the truth spell back, to not blurt out that they weren’t about to listen to that.

His eyes landed on them. “And you two understand this and what will happen if you don’t follow instructions.”

“Of course, sir,” Narcissa said smoothly. “We don’t want to cause Hermione any trouble. We want to bring this man to justice.”

Anathema held in another snort. That was decidedly Narcissa’s bullshit, ass-kissing for dumbasses voice. Usually the voice meant she was lying, but it seemed that the voice could be used with the truth as well. Which probably shouldn’t be a turn on, but the voice always had been. Mostly because after she was done using it and they were off somewhere else they always made fun of the person and Narcissa always laughed and she loved the other woman’s laugh. That and perhaps she was a little too on edge anyway from the thought of having Hermione.

He sniffed. “Well at least you’re doing the decent thing now, I suppose.” He looked back to Hermione again. “Fine, signed off, get what you need and bring this one in. Shame, really, heard he was a good man. Shame what happened to his boy.”

Hermione nodded solemnly. “It is, but it’s no excuse for this behavior.”

He nodded. “I’m sure the Wizengamot will take everything into account when they sentence him.”

A look flashed across Hermione’s face that she was sure the man hadn’t seen. A furious, world-ending look that said if the Wizengamot so much as tried to lighten his sentence because of a trauma that had happened almost a decade before, she wouldn’t let them hear the end of it. But it was gone before Anathema had time to process it overly much, let alone a man who probably barely knew her cara.

“I’m sure they will,” she said in an even voice, a bit of a smile on her face that read as genuine if you didn’t look her in the eyes. She stood. “Thank you for your time, sir.”

Hermione led them out of the office and back down the hall towards her department, steps rapid. “I’ll need an hour to gather everyone and brief them, but it should be easy enough. Amos should be at work later today so everything should calm.” She frowned over her shoulder. “Should be. Hopefully, he isn’t an idiot. But in the interim, you two can wait in my office again for me. This isn’t a ploy to leave you behind, I swear. Just why should you be attached to me walking around bored when you could at least be sitting and bored.” She looked at both Anathema’s and Narcissa’s feet, both clad in four-inch heels.

Anathema snorted. “You do realize we have these cushion charmed to the point where they just feel like regular shoes, yes?” That was the real secret of any fashionable witch. Why torture yourself for a good look when undetectable extension charms and cushioning charms existed.

“I suppose that would make sense, but still, sitting is better than hovering behind me like ghosts?”

Narcissa grinned and her eyes dropped to Hermione’s backside, flexing in front of them as they continued to walk down the hall. “In some ways, yes, in other ways, no.”

“I will never know peace. I don’t even want it, but.” She stuck out her tongue at them and then rounded the corner back into her department. “Office, please? Mostly it will be easier to gather the troops if you aren’t hovering. Granted I’m not picking any of the gits of the DLME but, you two are rather striking, perhaps intimidating if a person doesn’t know that you both have a soft squishy center.”

“Mmm, that’s because they wouldn’t see the center anyway. Only the worthy do, cara, and you are very worthy.” She looped her arm through Narcissa’s. “But fair enough point we’ll wait for you, but don’t be too long. It isn’t nice to keep your ladies waiting, yes?” She set off with Narcissa towards Hermione’s office, leaving behind a rather stunned Hermione. The woman really was too easy to tease and she loved it.

They both sat down in Hermione’s office and sighed. Anathema reached for Narcissa’s hand again, holding it, stroking it with her thumb absently. She would never tire of this, getting to touch Narcissa so casually. For so long she had had to think about every touch, make sure it wasn’t overstepping a line, that she wouldn’t make the other witch uncomfortable, but now that was all over. It had been months but sometimes it was still hard to believe. 

“Penny for your thoughts,” Narcissa asked, teasing.

Anathema smiled at her. “Just thinking of how much I love you, bella mia, and how glad I am just to be able to hold your hand like this.” She brought Narcissa’s hand up to her mouth and kissed it gently.

“You’re a hopeless romantic, you know that?” Her cheeks pinked just a bit. Narcissa always had such control over her expressions, but around Anathema some of that control seemed to always slip. She loved that she could make the blonde lose just a bit of control, always had, now even more.

“It’s the Italian in me, bella amore, you know this.” She smirked, looked at the open door, then back to Narcissa. It wouldn’t do to get caught doing something untoward in the DLME, but it was so very tempting. If they weren’t about to go capture Amos Diggory she might chance it, but that would be for another time. Mmm, the ideas she had for this office once this was all done…

“Hermione only has a shadow of a clue what she's getting into.” Narcissa’s eyes flicked to the door and seemed to go through the same calculation Anathema just had. Considering she didn’t move she must have come to the same conclusion.

“She’s a smart woman, she’ll catch on quickly. Besides, I think she knows more than she lets on. There’s more than a hint of Slytherin in our cara.”

“Now that we can agree on.” Narcissa glanced at the door again and then leaned forward, capturing Anathema’s lips in a kiss that lasted for several seconds, but ended before anything could get extremely interesting. A shame. “The real question now is how do we make sure Hermione eats the breakfast we brought her before going out on this mission.”

Anathema laughed. “I’m sure you’ll find a way. I never have been able to say no to your puppy dog eyes.”

“Excuse you, I’ve never had such an uncouth expression on my face in my life,” Narcissa scoffed.

“Sure, bella, sure. Your secret is safe with me, but of course.”

Narcissa grumbled under her breath but said nothing more. Anathema just laughed and kept a hold of her hand. An hour later Hermione appeared again in the doorway with a smile, finding the both of them sitting on the couch they’d transfigured out of the chair in her office, curled up together, keeping occupied, both reading the trashy romance novel Hermione kept hidden in her desk for lunch breaks she just needed to relax during.

“We’re ready to move out.” She glanced down at her watch. “Just in time too, it’s half-past nine so Amos should be in and settled at his desk for the morning. I’ve let his department head know what’s going on so most of the people will be out on tasks. It should be easy enough.”

Anathema stood, placing the book back on Hermione’s desk. She’d have to borrow it later to finish it. She wanted to see if the fictional innkeeper got together with the space werewolf, for a romance novel, it did have a rather good plot. Perhaps she would have to ask Hermione for some recommendations for later. She swiped the croissant that Hermione had left behind with one hand and the other she held out her hand to Narcissa who took it, standing and slipping her feet back into her heels.

“Good, having it be over before lunch would be wonderful.” They both walked over to Hermione. She held up the pastry to her with expectant eyes. “But you haven’t eaten breakfast yet. We can’t take down a mad man on an empty stomach can we?”

Hermione rolled her eyes but took the bread from Anathema and ripped off a rather large bite. Within a minute it was eaten, if with horrible manners. Anathema would take it. 

“Happy?”

“But of course, darling, we’re very happy when we’re with you,” Narcissa said with a smile and a glance to Anathema that said she’d noticed the table manners as well. She’d probably learned them from that Weasley boy, though she did eat like a proper lady normally at least. Though Anathema could think of a few decent ways to make learning table manners fun. Maybe she’d just use them anyway. Hermione would enjoy them after all….

“Good, now come on.” She led them out into the bullpen and to a small group of witches and wizards, all competent looking. Anathema recognized two of them from investigations into her previous husbands’ deaths. They had been professional and competent, even if they hadn’t much liked her for obvious reasons. Good. Hermione had chosen well then. Not that she’d had any doubt that she would.

“Alright, everyone’s here, great, it should take us about five minutes to get to Magical Creatures, add a few minutes just in case, so in ten minutes we’ll approach Diggory. Everyone to your places then.”

Everyone nodded and then eight of the ten went off while two stayed behind. Three against one was good odds, everyone else had to be covering potential exits and serving as out of sight backup if needed. A good strategy then, especially when you added them into the count to bring Diggory in. She knew Hermione was competent, but still, all of this was soothing her nerves, knowing and seeing were indeed two different things.

“Alright then, off we go,” Hermione said, and led them towards the elevator. 

Five minutes later they were on the floor where the Magical Creatures Department was. It seemed rather empty as promised, but they didn’t go in, instead pacing by the department as if they had business in one of the other departments on the floor. Hermione walked them around the maze of the floor for a few minutes, somehow circling them back around to the entrance to the Magical Creatures entrance without doubling back. How the woman knew the exact layout of this floor without ever having worked on it, well, what did she really expect from Hermione.

At ten minutes on the dot, Hermione walked towards the door, entering the nearly empty department and back towards the back row of desks that had larger, more spacious cubicles. Amos Diggory had been with the department long enough, it would make sense that he’d earned such a privilege. She led them to the last cubicle in the row and stopped dead. She peaked around Hermione and saw signs of Amos having been there that morning, the desk lamp was on, a few forms in the process of being filled out with the day’s date on them, but there was certainly no Amos Diggory.

Hermione looked around and found one of the few remaining workers and made a beeline towards them. “Excuse me,” she said, startling the woman. She must have had exactly zero spatial awareness. How in the world did she miss five strangers wandering around her department enough to be startled. “Do you know where Amos Diggory went off to?”

“Oh, he just went out to get some tea for us all. He does that once a month as a treat. Nothing like having an actual good cup of tea instead of the weak breakroom stuff, am I right?”

“Does he usually do it when the department is this empty?”

The woman scowled lightly. “Actually, no, not usually, not much of a morale boost when most of the people don’t get to benefit, is it? Come to think of it, he bought tea for us all about a week and a half ago. He’s not really due to buy us tea for another little bit. Maybe he thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to double up since everyone else seems to be out for a mission here and there?” She shrugged.

“Do you know what tea shop he usually goes to?” Hermione asked, foot-tapping lightly on the floor now.

“Oh yeah, Buckleys, lovely place that. I don’t usually go there much myself since it’s out of the way, but it makes wonderful tea.”

Hermione nodded. “How long ago did he leave?”

“Fifteen minutes or so? He’d just sat down and gotten started with a few things when one of his friends from the DMLE came over and started talking and then when he left Amos came around asking for our orders and was off.”

Hermione’s eyes narrowed and Anathema had a distinct feeling that whoever that person from the DMLE had been, they wouldn’t have a job by day’s end if she had anything to say about it. She couldn’t much blame the woman considering that man had just made this arrest that much more complicated.

“Thank you for your help. Sorry we missed him. Will you let me know when he comes back? We’ve a bit of important business to discuss.”

“Sure thing, Ms. Granger, anything for you.” The woman beamed as if a saint had just blessed her. Geesh, the woman screamed Hufflepuff.

“Thank you.” Hermione headed for the door, sending off an otter patronus in an instant. Within three minutes the rest of the team was gathered in the hall outside the department. “He’s gone out, supposedly for tea, but I don’t much believe it. One of our own tipped him off, had to have been someone who overheard us, find them, ask them where he went, I’ll check the apparition traces and portkey records to see if he’s tried to get anywhere farther away. Some of you see if you can track him on foot. The second we know where he’s going, send a patronus to the rest of us and we’ll regroup and modify the plan based on where he ends up.”

Everyone nodded and scattered. 

“Well, he certainly knows how to make things interesting,” Anathema drawled. There went having this all over by lunch. Oh, it had been such a nice thought too.

“Too interesting.” Hermione ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “Come on, the tracking department is right by the DMLE.”

Another hour and they hadn’t found any record of Diggory going anywhere. He’d likely known it wouldn’t be long before they were on his tail and stuck to untraceable methods of transport. If she’d been in his shoes she would have just walked somewhere, probably to muggle London and then taken a cab elsewhere. She would’ve had some sort of bolt hole prepped for this exact situation. There was no way that the man hadn’t known there was an investigation into his little stunt. He’d cursed Hermione after all in warning. If he hadn’t had a place to go before that, he would be stupid if he didn’t now. She bit the inside of her lip and hummed. She’d make her hideout somewhere that wouldn’t be immediately obvious, far from any friends or family she had, in fact, her favorite escape was in Russia on the tundra, a shack on the outside, but magically expanded into a palatial mansion on the inside that could be self-sustaining for as long as she needed it to be. That had taken her years and a mountain of galleons to set up. He didn’t have those resources, though from what she knew of his family he was upper-middle class, so he had some money to burn. He most likely would’ve gotten something in London, but as cheap as he could get it. Something in a bad part of town, something abandoned and run down most likely.

“Hermione, cara, do we have access to muggle property records here?” Anathema asked, thinking of districts she would like to check.

“Yes, why?” Hermione looked up from the apparition records, double-checking that she hadn’t missed something.

“He’s gone somewhere, barring that he hasn’t learned how to use the Death Eater’s travel spell, and I doubt he would considering he still thinks himself a righteous man and that is fairly dark magic, he’s gone on foot or off into Muggle London in a taxi. And if he’s done that--”

Hermione cut her off. “He has somewhere to go!” She waved her wand and the apparition records were put away. “The room we need is two doors down.” She shot off in an instant. 

Anathema and Narcissa followed at a more sedate pace to find Hermione already scattered with papers. 

“Where should we even start? He wouldn’t have bought it under his name would he?”

Narcissa hummed. “No. But I would place money on the fact that he’s either bought the property under his son’s name or perhaps even Harry Potter’s name.”

Anathema hadn’t thought of Harry Potter but, “Ah, a good name for a righteous quest, no?” She looked at the records around Hermione. “And somewhere cheap, abandoned probably, in a bad part of town. He isn’t extremely rich correct?”

Hermione nodded, already sending the papers flying around her again. “No, he wouldn’t really need his ministry salary to live, but it does make sure they’re comfortable no matter what the market does.”

“Then yes, he wouldn’t want to use a great deal of that wealth just for a just in case hiding space. And the earliest he would’ve purchased it would’ve been just before he started cursing people. He had to know it was a necessary purchase before making it.”

The records around Hermione thinned into a still rather impressive stack. “Ok, these should be searchable by magic, if they’ve been charmed properly, otherwise it will take a bit to go through. Sometimes I wish the magical world had computers and google.”

Anathema blinked at Hermione. What in the world was a google? She’d at least heard of a computer, but she had no idea how in the world they’d be helpful. Maybe the other woman would teach her. She always did like to learn new things. Especially potentially useful ones if she needed resources for her next scheme.

Hermione waved her wand and searched the documents, speaking aloud a different search term every time, the pages responded to the spell, but none of them glowed until, “Cedric Eldritch.” She gasped as one page floated up, the line she wanted highlighted in a brighter gold. “That was his middle name,” she said quietly. She read over the information quickly. “Croydon, an old cast iron factory that’s been abandoned for years now, on the farther edge from town so it hasn’t been caught up in gentrification just yet and he got it honestly for a song for as big as this place is, someone probably just wanted rid of it.” 

“Well then, that would fit. Shall we?” They’d miss lunch, but dinner was still a go at this point. She bounced on her toes in excitement. What dress would she wear? Oh, probably one of the ones she’d bought after she and Narcissa had gotten together, one of the ones neither of them had seen, and perhaps they were also the more risque of her dresses. What a shame.

“Yeah, let me call back everyone. We’re going to need the schematics of this place and to plan another sweep.” She cast a patronus and sent it off. “It will probably be another little bit if you two want to get lunch?” Her eyes widened a bit as she had a thought. “Maybe Chinese food? Eggrolls? Chicken Lo Mein? Maybe by the time you’re back we’ll have a plan again.”

“Now I think that can be achieved, cara mia.” Of course it wouldn’t just be some hole in the wall place that she got this takeout from, no. She had a place in mind that would blow Hermione right out of the water. Though perhaps she should let Narcissa choose the lunch place since she had already picked out their dinner spot. It was only fair and they had a lifetime to get around to blow Hermione’s mind in any and all situations.

“Yes, don’t worry, we’ll take care of lunch,” Narcissa agreed, looping her arm through Anathema’s. “Anything else you might want?”

“If you can finagle a mountain of fortune cookies, I’d be forever grateful. I love them more than I probably should.”

Narcissa laughed. “You and Anathema have something in common, though she assures me that she doesn’t know where they go.”

Anathema tried to keep her mouth shut, she did, but the damned curse on her wouldn’t let her. “I eat them as soon as I open the bag because I can’t control myself. They’re a ridiculously cheap sugar cookie and yet they are delicious. But I do always save one for you because I know you like them too, there just are usually many more than one when the bag comes.”

“I love you, darling woman.” She smiled and kissed Anathema’s cheek. “I always request extra for you when we order take away, so I well know.”

“This is ridiculously cute, oh my god,” Hermione said, watching the two of them. “And the amount of extra we’re going to need between Anathema and I is going to be absolutely ridiculous.”

“I’ll make sure to buy stock in a company then.” Narcissa tugged Anathema to her side gently. “We’ll be back shortly, darling.”


	14. Chapter 14

Forty minutes later they were back carrying an assortment of Chinese food, enough for an army. Anathema and Narcissa had both figured that feeding the team that was supposed to help Hermione take Diggory in wouldn’t be remiss. That and ordering for twelve people did get them a rather large amount of fortune cookies which they’d be keeping for themselves. 

Finding Hermione and the team was easy enough. Anathema had become more than a bit attuned to the other woman’s magical signature over the months of watching her trying to break the curse on Narcissa. In the same building as her, it was easy enough to follow her magic, stretching out towards the other woman like a compass until she was right in front of Hermione, and this time found her in a meeting room with everyone looking at the schematics of the old factory, numbers on exits, letters on rooms in the building. Anathema looked it over quickly, if she had to guess, the numbers were people since they were one to ten, the letters looked to be perhaps a ranking system on the most likely places Diggory would be. She frowned counting. There were so many exit points on this building that now Hermione was going in on her own, well, her own plus them. Not ideal, but it would still be three against one, which was decent enough odds, but if she was Diggory she would’ve spent the entire time she’d own the place boobytrapping it.

Everyone in the room perked up at the sight of them with bags and bags of food. Hermione smiled at them, eyes alight, very pleased at their gesture. Hmm, Anathema had a feeling they could capitalize on that later. She stopped herself from wiggling at the possibilities that brought to mind.

“We’ve brought lunch.” Narcissa floated forward the bags they’d bought with a variety of options, keeping the bag with their and Hermione’s orders with all of the fortune cookies tucked away for later. 

Everyone descended on the food, trying to find something they liked as they made their way to Hermione. “Plan made, cara?” Anathema asked, digging around for her kung pao chicken and a container of rice and sitting down at the other end of the table from everyone else.

Hermione flopped beside her, digging out her lo mein and a package of eggrolls and sighing happily. “Yeah, everything should be good to go. I checked into pulling a few more people onto the op considering how many entrances and exits this place has, but there’s been a big incident up in Hogsmeade. Some kid at Hogwarts tried to craft his own spell, cast it at a tree in town, it exploded, and took out half of Zonko’s and blew out all the windows in town. It’s a mess. No one was hurt, but it’s an absolute disaster, so all spare hands are up there cataloging just everything that went wrong. The kid is in a heap of trouble, but since he’s a kid I think it will be more his parent’s job to punish him than us. They’ll have to pay for the damages to anything that can’t be magically repaired too.”

Anathema grimaced. “Tough break, but creating spells isn’t a thing that a student should be doing, at least not unless they’re a 7th year, then perhaps an exception could be made, maybe 6th if they were highly advanced like some of us.” Her eyes landed on Hermione with a smirk.

Narcissa took out her own order, beef and broccoli with a smile. “Something tells me that our Hermione might have done so before 6th year.”

Hermione blushed. “Not really, I mean yes but it was just modification of standing spells, not anything new as such until after 6th year.”

“Mhm, and where did this student start out?” Narcissa asked blandly.

“Modifying spells...but he’s just a third-year!” Hermione protested.

Anathema smirked, spearing a piece of chicken on her plastic fork and raising an eyebrow. “And how old were you when you started modifying spells.”

Hermione sputtered but jammed an eggroll in her mouth to give herself time to think. Both Narcissa and Anathema laughed quietly. They shared an amused glance. Oh, their cara was special, so special, that it didn’t much matter if she herself had started in third year, she was the brightest witch of her age and knew a great deal more than the poor boy who’d exploded half of town. It was so very fun to tease her though.

“Ok well, when did you both?” Hermione returned after she swallowed her bite.

“Sixth year,” Anathema said. “I had heard tell of a vibration spell that would make orgasms more intense than fingers alone, but couldn’t find record of it so I made my own. It’s come in handy over the years.” She didn’t have to look but she  _ knew _ Narcissa was blushing. She’d used it on her more than once and it always made the other woman scream her name.

“Seventh,” Narcissa said, fighting down her blush. “I’d gotten tired of the feel of regular absorbing charms on underwear and modified it so I didn’t have to feel so awful on my monthly cycle.”

She’d passed that on to Anathema too. A nice charm, she barely noticed anymore when she was on her period and certainly never hard to worry about anything going awry. Though recently she’d been using it so she didn’t ruin her favorite pairs of underwear with her wetness, and Merlin, how wet Narcissa could make her at the drop of a hat.

Hermione scowled and ate another bite of her eggroll. It was far too adorable, but Anathema decided to give her a break and went back to eating her own food. She did, however, glance over at Narcissa to exchange a look that said just how cute they found their cara’s pouting to be. Oh Merlin, if the woman ever figured it out she’d be able to get anything she wanted. And since she was a very smart woman, she would figure it out. Ah well, Anathema didn’t feel much like denying her anything anyway.

“Are the letters the order in which we’re going to clear the rooms,” Anathema asked a few minutes later when a decent portion of their food was gone. 

Hermione hummed around a mouthful of noodles. “Yup,” she said after swallowing. “It seems more likely that he’s in one of the rooms that can be easily defensible, not the factory floor itself. Considering he’s had the building for a month or so he’s probably laid some traps on the floor and on the doors that he’s not fond of using. We don’t have surveillance to know which one he likes to use, so I’ll be casting to make sure we aren’t running into anything nasty at the doors and then continually casting as we move through the building nonverbally so we don’t alert him.”

“What spells will you be using?” Narcissa asked, sitting forward. “I’m also fairly skilled in nonverbal magic, especially when it comes to detecting traps. I rather had to be considering that snake of a man who took over my home liked to set traps for his followers to fall into just for his amusement and he didn’t much like if someone cast to remove them. The only real way to go about life accosted was to detect the traps before you fell into them, silently of course, because he couldn’t know what you were doing, and then avoid them.”

“Every single thing you say about that man makes me want to resurrect him and kill him again, this time more slowly,” Anathema said with a frown.

“Mmm, I’d help,” Narcissa agreed.

“I’m game,” Hermione said, “there would be no prophecy this time too, so a free for all would be just fine.” There was a lethal glint in her eyes.

“Splendid, we just have to figure out a way to do so.”

Hermione waved her off. “We’ll have plenty of time after this. I know where Harry buried his body.”

Narcissa laughed. “I can see why you weren’t placed in Slytherin, darling. You would’ve been far too dangerous.”

“Yes, is it true you trapped Rita Skeeter in a jar for a month during your fourth year?”

Hermione’s eyes darted to her colleagues but they weren’t paying attention, all eating and laughing together in their own little group, which was fine by Anathema. She liked having their cara’s full attention. Especially when she nodded slightly, blushing.

“It wasn’t one of my finer moments, but she wouldn’t leave Harry alone and he was having a hard enough time that year with the tournament and visions from Voldemort he didn’t need a lying trollop in his business.”

“How very Slytherin of you, cara, using a foe’s weakness against them like that. The woman should have thought of that before she didn’t register herself as an animagus.”

“Quite, honestly a jar was the better option considering just how fragile insects can be,” Narcissa mused, looking at Anathema and arching an eyebrow. Oh, how she did love when Narcissa got to be just a bit murderous. Yet another thing on her list of things that shouldn’t turn her on, but very,  _ very  _ much did. She had a feeling Hermione with a murderous edge would be even worse considering her goody-two-shoes persona. 

“Beside the point,” Hermione interrupted. “I’m using the standard sweeping spells and a couple of my own invention that seem to find things the standard ones miss. I can teach them to you quickly right now, they aren’t high level, just cleverly constructed.”

Both Anathema and Narcissa sat forward, wands already in hand. “Yes please, cara.”

Hermione nodded and spent the rest of lunch teaching them the wand movements they would need, and by the time everyone was throwing out their takeout cartons, they had mastered them both with and without having to speak the incantation aloud. Anathema smiled to herself. Her first husband had said she’d never be good with nonverbal magic, let alone wandless magic. Shame for him that he’d been rather dead wrong about it. Oops.

“Alright,” Hermione said, standing up. “From the apparition point to the warehouse. Foot traffic is low, but stay disillusioned just in case when you appear. Five minutes, operation starts, be in your places.”

Everyone nodded and hurried out of the room and towards the ministry apparition point. Hermione turned back towards them and gestured them forward. “Come on you two, wands out and all that. We have a man to bring in and then a date to go on and I’m very excited for one of those things.”

“Ah, a wild guess which one of those things it is,” Narcissa said, deadpan, as they left the room and made their way to the apparition point.

“Such a hard choice, I say we flip a coin to decide,” Anathema teased, watching Hermione striding ahead of them once again. What was the crude American saying, she hated to see Hermione go, but she loved to watch her leave? That seemed applicable now even if Hermione wasn’t really leaving.

“Har de har, you two are regular comedians.” Any bite Hermione meant the statement with was completely negated by the fact that she couldn’t hold back a smile.

“We are very funny,” Anathema said as they reached the apparition point. “Perhaps we can give you a side stitch later, from laughing or from other activities, I’m not picky, are you, bella mia?”

“No, I don’t think I am, darling.” Narcissa’s wand fell into her hand easily. “So long as we actually get to go on the date and perhaps I might get to curse the man in the process? A bit of revenge? It won’t be anything that will leave permanent damage, I promise, a stinging jinx, perhaps an extended bat bogey hex, something like that?”

Hermione side-eyed her but before she could get a word in Anathema spoke. “Isn’t that supposed to be my line bella amore?”

“Both of you, if he doesn’t cast at us, no counterspells. At all. We don’t want him to get out on some technicality do we?”

“No,” they both said at the same time.

“Didn’t think so. But if he does? Then feel free. Use of force is authorized for defense and capture.”

“We can work with that,” Anathema said.

“Good, now come on or we’ll be late.” Hermione turned on the spot and apparated away. 

Anathema followed a second later, appearing in the alley next to the building they would be going into. Narcissa appeared at her side a second later. Hermione motioned them closer, already standing by the door they were to enter, glancing down at her watch and nodding.

“Everyone should be in place now. Keep your eyes open, be careful, and stay with me, got it?” She gave them both a hard stare.

They both nodded and Hermione turned, opening the door with a silent unlocking spell and then a silencing charm, easing it open on ancient hinges. The inside of the building was dark, light coming in only through ancient stained windows covered in years of grime, just enough to see outlines of old abandoned machinery and not much else. The younger witch cast the first spell to try and detect and booby traps, then another, and another in quick succession before she moved forward into the space. Anathema took a deep breath, readying herself easily, a smirking coming home to roost on her face. In another life had she ended up a bit more noble of a person, she probably would’ve quite liked being an auror, the adrenaline and the chase, being cleverer than the suspect were all things that would entertain her greatly. But she wasn’t quite that person, no, considering she mostly got her thrills from bending the rules instead of enforcing them. A pity. 

Though not really considering she was much looking forward to figuring out the rules of being with Hermione and then bending them in very pleasurable ways. She had a feeling the other woman was very,  _ very  _ flexible.

They walked slowly forward, casting all around them, making sure each step was safe, making sure the air above their heads wasn’t charmed in some way. It wasn’t. In fact halfway into the room and there weren’t any traps and Anathema was getting antsy. This man had had the building for a month. He had planned everything else so carefully. To have a building to go off to, to lie low, why wouldn’t he booby trap it to allow himself time to slip off again if the DMLE found it? She would’ve. Was this so they would drop their guard and then run straight into his protections later? She very much didn’t like it. She glanced to Narcissa who also had the same tense expression on her face and to Hermione as well who seemed a bit calmer, except for the fact that her shoulders were drawn up, waiting for the exact second she would have to move with lightning quickness. Something wasn’t right and they could all feel it.

But they continued forward, pace slowing a bit, spells checking a little more thoroughly, breaths coming in slow, steady pulls, breathing in musty air that smelled only of a dormant, decaying building and faintly of rot. Something, probably a rat, perhaps a bird had died in this room at some point. There were no other hints that someone had been here, no footprints in the dust on the floor either. Each of their steps stirred a little cloud of it up into the air before it settled back again. Anathema was glad she didn’t have any allergies or else such a stealth mission would be rather impossible for the sneezing.

Hermione led them down a small pathway just past the middle of the room. The old rusting machines pressed close to them, smelling of oxidized metal, blocking a good bit of the light that was available. Anathema put her feet down carefully. There wasn’t much debris in this room, the factory had obviously been cleaned out before it’d been abandoned, but the second she didn’t pay attention she would put her foot down on an old skeleton of a rat and as silent as the room was, the crunch would surely alert their quarry that they were here. The first room they were supposed to check out was at the end of this little passage though, so the path was worth the trouble it brought, even if Anathema didn’t much like that they could only see behind and ahead of them now.

The younger witch peaked around the end of the machine, looking first one way then the other. She must have judged it all clear because she crept forward, across another clear walkway, and to the door they needed. She tried the knob, silently twisting it and then shaking her head. Locked then, but was it from Diggory, or had some long ago occupant done it? She cast on it without a sound and then opened the door quietly. The room beyond was completely black. It must not have any windows at all. Narcissa’s eyes met hers. To cast a lumos might give them away. If they went into the room and shut the door first, then they wouldn’t be seen, but stepping into a room without knowing what was in there was a very bad idea.

Hermione waved her wand and a little blue ball of flame shot forth into the room, not very bright and almost all of its light was contained in the room. It brightened with the twisting of Hermione’s wand until they could see the contents of the room. No one was visible, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t there. A few more diagnostic spells flew out of the younger woman’s wand, but Anathema turned around slowly as if she was just checking no one had snuck up behind them. She felt eyes on their backs. It wasn’t a certain feeling, just the rising of hair on the back of her neck, but she had never been wrong before about someone watching her. Diggory was here and he knew they were too. She gripped her wand tighter and turned back around. She had a plan, but she couldn’t exactly just give away that she was certain he was there, and that meant she couldn’t speak her plan out loud. Hermione wasn’t much going to like it, but she would thank her later, she was sure.

She pushed forward, gesturing that she was going into the room to check it out more thoroughly. Hermione tilted her head in confusion. Her spells had shown no one in there, but she stepped aside easily enough. Anathema smiled at her and then slipped inside, making a show of her own casting, different spells than Hermione, though with the same results. She shrugged at them and both Hermione and Narcissa nodded their understanding and turned around to move on to the next room. He wasn’t there, they had to keep looking. And in that moment she cast a disillusionment charm on herself and levitated herself off the ground. It wouldn’t do for the dust to give her away. Then she slipped from the room.

She followed behind them, casting with a spare thought back into the room to animate some of the debris so it sounded like someone was quietly shuffling through the room, checking carefully. She couldn’t have him figuring out that she was out and about. The disillusionment would go a long way, but it would be much better if he wasn’t focused on finding her, but focused on her loves instead. She’d find him and she’d take him down and then they’d be on their happy way back to the station and then out to a nice dinner. She wiggled a bit in the air just thinking about it, almost getting her robe caught on an old, still machine, but she pulled it away at the last moment and focused up. There would be time to be passionate about her girlfriends later.

She floated up a bit more, looking around, but seeing no one. If she had to guess he was also under a disillusionment spell. He had favored them to cast the truth curse, she wouldn’t see why he wouldn’t use them now when he was trying not to get caught. Finite incantatem would work to end it, but that only had a limited effective range and this space was huge. She couldn’t just cast over the whole thing. Hmm, well, there were a few things she could do. All the doors were being watched, wards on all of them to dissipate any concealment spells and there was an anti-apparition jinx over the entire building. The only way he could hope to get out was by one of the doors. If she could manage to drive him that way, one of the other DMLE officers would get him and all would be over. She wondered why he wasn’t trying to flee. Was the idiot actually thinking of fighting now that he was cornered? What about his “I’m a good guy I’m just doing this for justice” schtick? If he so much as flung a curse in the  _ direction  _ of Hermione or Narcissa, murder charges be damned, she was killing him.

She watched Hermione and Narcissa creeping towards the next room, closer this time than the first one had been. Again, Hermione cast her little blue flames into the room, brightening them when they were in place to look around, and then dimming them again. No. He wasn’t in any of the rooms. It was somewhere he could watch. She looked around. Her floating in the middle of the room was a good lookout, but it also did take a fair amount of magic to keep her up like this. She had plenty of magical stores, but it wasn’t the best long term option, and Diggory didn’t know how long they would be there. If he was trying to hide instead of fight his way out, he would need somewhere he knew they were sure not to go. She looked around the space in the dim light. If she were a mediocre upper-middle-class white man, where would she hide?

Her eyes fell on a catwalk, rusted out, the stairs up to it had fallen ages ago it looked like. There was no real way to get to it, other than by magical means. Floating up there and then sitting would be a good lookout post. A disillusionment spell and the fact that most humans didn’t look above shoulder height would be a good combination. Yes, that’s where she would hide. And as unstable as that looked? She could make sure he came down from there rather quickly. She floated up to the joists holding it into place, held up a hand to the metal, and pushed her magic into it. A second later the metal groaned, bending, flaking, shaking, as if the weight of a man was making it finally give up the ghost. She heard an almost silent curse and she smiled. So she’d been right after all. Wonderful.

She felt the structure try to stabilize, magic other than her own pouring into it. Oh, he didn’t want his little hiding place discovered? That was too bad. Just as she was about to push more magic into it, to make sure he had nowhere to go, a bolt of light flew past her, red and glowing, stunning spells. So she must not have been the only one to hear the curse in the silence of the room. Good. She turned to see Hermione and Narcissa out of the range of the catwalk if it fell, but still close. They both systematically covered the entire length of the catwalk in stunners, but she could still hear the sound of footsteps. He must have dodged then. Shame. And then a jolt of yellow light flew from him and his perch. Some sort of jinx, jelly legs perhaps, nothing lethal. But that was more than enough for her.

She looked around, tracking where he was. If she cast a stunning spell of her own, he would see someone was up here. She couldn’t abide by that either. He might have to split his spells if he did that, but if he hit her when she was floating like this, under a disillusionment spell? That would not be good news for her. She needed something a bit more low tech to take him out quickly and quietly.

“Confringo,” came a whispered word, teal light shot off farther away, not aiming towards Hermione and Narcissa exactly, but off to the side, hoping to scatter them with debris. Fury ran through her. If they came up with so much as a  _ scratch.  _ Hermione and Narcissa were distracted, avoiding the pieces of rubble the spell created, and a second later another seafoam bolt of light hit them, trapping them in a ring of the same color. They looked around, banging on the walls of the spell, but it was as if they were caught in a fishbowl. Now Diggory was free to make his escape.

Or so he well thought anyway. One of the pieces of detritus flew towards Anathema and she caught it in a nimble hand. Ah. An old cast iron pan, probably one of the things this old factory used to make, rusty, yes, but still very hefty and solid. They didn’t make them like this anymore. Good. She could use that to her advantage. She looked to where Diggory’s curses had come from and saw a faint outline. He wasn’t much out of magic yet, but whatever spell he had Hermione and Narcissa trapped in probably took concentration, concentration he couldn’t use to keep up the disillusionment. Even better. She floated so she was behind the man with her new favorite weapon, pulled back her arm, and swung forward so hard that when she struck him, her arm ached with the reverberation. He crumpled to the ground, seafoam light dimming and concealment charm dissipating revealing a knocked out Amos Diggory with blood running down his forehead. Whoops. She smirked.

“Anathema?” Hermione called out, looking up.

She dropped her charm to reveal herself smiling down at Hermione and Narcissa. “Hello, cara, it seems we’ve caught something.” She flicked her wand at the man and levitated him down to her lovers, floating down with him and touching the ground with a little flourish. “I don’t think he’ll much wake up for a long while, but,  _ incarcerous _ .” Ropes bound his hands and she took his wand out of one of them, handing it over to a rather stunned Hermione.

“You hit him with a pan?” Hermione asked, eyes wide.

“You’re a witch, ‘thema. And you hit him with a cast-iron skillet. Why am I not surprised.” Narcissa nudged the man with the toe of her boot, distaste on her face.

“Yes, well, I actually killed my second husband in much the same way. It was fun. I actually got the original inspiration from a muggle movie. Well, that and it was the closest thing at hand at the time.” She looked to Hermione with excited eyes. “You know how to play movies, yes? Can we have a movie date with popcorn and everything? They’re truly delightful. Also if we watch them in a theatre I would love to see if you could be quiet the entire time while I touch you under the cover of darkness. Also, I very much like romantic movies even if I say I don’t and say they’re all overdone and nothing like the great loves of Italy. Some of them even make me cry though I’ll claim to my death that it’s allergies.” She blinked but shrugged. Well. She didn’t much mind either of the two women in front of her knowing that. She’d already gotten the happy ending to her admittedly rather long, a bit more murderous than usual, romantic movie. She knew neither of them would hold it against her.

“What about rom-coms?” Hermione asked, bending down to check Diggory’s pulse. She must have found one because she stood back up and levitated him off the floor, heading towards the door, steps careful to avoid debris but no longer quiet.

“I like those too, of course. And musicals.”

Hermione beamed back at her as they opened the door they’d come in from. “Wonderful, I have just the collection for you then. We can spend a Saturday on the couch at my place with a movie marathon.”

Narcissa blinked at the both of them. “I honestly have no idea what either of you are talking about, but I like romantic books so I suppose I’ll like the movies as well. As long as I have you two on the couch with me, I think we could be watching paint dry and I would be happy enough.” She snorted out a laugh. “What a sap you two have made me into, we all have reputations to uphold.”

Anathema gestured towards Diggory drifting in front of them as they stepped out into the alleyway. “I think this won’t hurt the reputation, bella amore, do you?”

Narcissa looked down at the man and shrugged. “I suppose not, but honestly it’s not like he was the next dark lord or anything. I’m mostly glad to see him gone so I can kiss Hermione again, once was not nearly enough.”

“Oh, on that you and I are both agreed, Narcissa, darling, you and I are both agreed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One Diggory in custody, just some paperwork and the date you've all been waiting for will start next chapter *rainbow* also did I recount the chapters and realize there was an extra one, yes. WHOOPS.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I get distracted with Christmas things and forget to post this earlier, youuuuuuuu betcha, but, the beginning of the date is in this, so I think you'll forgive me. *Jingling intensifies*

Diggory was just waking up when Hermione walked in with a folder of all the evidence she had against him. It would be an even stronger case if he confessed of course, but he would be found guilty no matter what, she was sure. Perhaps he might have gotten a lighter sentence if he’d only stuck to cursing death eater wives, but no, he’d gone after her, cursed her, and then when she’d come to arrest him had tried to curse her again. She wasn’t quite sure what the seafoam ring had been meant to do beyond trap them, but it hadn’t felt like the most benign magic in the world. And going after her with something like that, well, she didn’t much like her war hero status, for the most part, she wanted to earn what she got, but for this? Well, she’d take this man going away to Azkaban for a long time so he would be nowhere near Narcissa and Anathema.

“Mr. Diggory, I wish we were meeting under better circumstances,” she said, sitting down at the table across from the little cot they had set up in the interview room for when people were brought in after being hit with a particularly potent stunning spell.

He looked at her, a bit confused, and then looked around the room a bit wildly, trying to figure out just where he was. It took him a few seconds, but he seemed to put it together nicely. “Wait, what am I doing in a DMLE interview room? I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Hermione arched a cool eyebrow at the man and flicked her wand. A copy of her memory of the last few hours popped up on the wall behind her, playing like a movie. There was a flash of blue light and then she was trapped with Narcissa as the flames surrounded them, they died the next second as Anathema hit the man with a pan with a muted clang and the man in question was revealed. 

“Mr. Diggory, we both know that’s patently false. This is just what you’ve done wrong today, let alone the things that you’ve done that led me to pursue your arrest in the first place. Considering you had a place to flee to, knew well enough to stay hidden for so long? You knew I was closing in on you, didn’t you?”

The man looked flustered, he finally sat up and pushed himself off the cot, making his way on slightly unsteady legs towards the other chair across the table from her. “That spell wouldn’t have harmed you, it was just to keep you there for a bit. I’d never hurt you. You’re the reason why You Know Who is dead.”

“Then tell me what was that spell exactly?”

“Permanens probari multaque.”

Hermione’s eyes narrowed. An old spell, one not usually used for a variety of reasons, mostly that the casting of the spell was hit or miss, temperamental, it liked to depending on the phase of the moon sometimes and other times didn’t seem to be much affected at all. But that wasn’t the only reason. “Do you know the Latin translation for permanens, Mr. Diggory?”

“Well no, not really, why? What does that matter?”

“It means permanent. If Anathema Zabini hadn’t knocked you out when she had and the spell had finished setting? Narcissa Black and I would have died in that circle you trapped us in.” Of course, there was a counterspell, but it was just as prone to failure as its counterpart. Which was why it wasn’t a well-used spell in the modern era. There were other spells that did the same job without the risk to life and limb.

He blinked rather stupidly. “But...my dad used to use it all the time.”

“Do you know the counterspell?”

He squinted, trying to remember but shook his head. “I thought it just wore off. That’s what it always looked like when he cast it.” He shrugged. “It’s been a while. He died my seventh year, dragon pox twice in a year, he was too weak to fight it off second time around.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Hermione said, at least half meaning it.

“Thank you. Wasn’t a great surprise. He was older. I was the seventh kid he'd had and a good half of my brothers and sisters were grown with their own kids when I was born.”

That would explain his father using the spell then if he was already older on top of being the father to a previous generation of wizards. “Still, Mr. Diggory, not having the knowledge doesn’t excuse the harm you could have done. That’s assault of an officer, you’re very lucky it isn’t attempted murder. On top of that just regular assault for Narcissa Black being with me. Those are serious charges.”

“Well I’m sorry I might have trapped you, but I’m not sorry that that snake might have been stuck there and starved to death. It’s what women like her deserve. A fine isn’t a steep enough punishment, surely you agree?” He looked at her with pleading eyes, trying to find a kindred soul.

Hermione found it cathartic to disabuse him of the notion. “The court serves out the justice it thinks is best. Can you name any one thing that Narcissa Black has done that she wasn’t already tried for? One that there is ample proof of, one that could go to court and receive the justice you claim is due?”

“Well no, but that’s because the bitch is just hiding it! She was that Malfoy bastard’s wife. He was there, you know, when my Cedric died. To be married to a man like that she had to have done something horrible too, you just know it!”

“Mr. Diggory, I know nothing but what the evidence tells me, and that points to Ms. Black not having done anything more than she’s already paid her dues for. You say I’m the reason that Voldemort’s dead? So is she. I know you must have seen that story in the papers when it came out. If she hadn’t lied straight to Voldemort’s face we all would be under a fascist regime. Well. Most of us would be. I’d certainly be dead, now wouldn’t I?”

“She’s just a self-serving bitch! She saw where the wind was blowing and jumped ship last second!”

She leaned forward. “Do you know what Ms. Black has spent the last six years doing?” She did, of course she did. She’d kept tabs on the woman before, but now, well, she might have taken old issues of the Prophet out of the library in her spare time to read about everything Narcissa had been up to these last six years. It had only made her fall in love with the woman more really. She’d read about Anathema too when she could find an article about her, but those were fewer and farther between.

“I know she’s opened some bullshit potion business to sell her evil wares to housewives who don’t know any better. Like the bitch needs any more money, she’s already rich.”

“Oh? That’s what you call founding a business that invents new and needed potions, that takes established but expensive potions and finds ways to make them affordable, that subsidizes this with the sale of their beauty products. You know, I’ve looked into that, the profits she does turn from that business are modest and she donates almost all of them to charity, the rest she puts back into the business to make sure her workers are paid fair wages and had set up an emergency fund for them in case they have need. But of course, that only started last year. In the previous years she’s donated a good portion of her own personal wealth and time to charity as well. But you wouldn’t know that, would you? You see her name in a headline, think ‘she’s death eater scum’ and move on. People are capable of change, Mr. Diggory, and should be allowed to do so if they see fit. And just like people such as Ms. Black can change for the better, it seems you’ve taken the opposite track. Do you think your son would be proud of you now? What I knew of your son, he was a giving young man, always keen to help. Would a young man like that be proud of what you’ve done?”

He stood up, slamming his hands on the table. She didn’t even jump. She’d rather expected this reaction. Almost ten years down the line and it was still his hot button issue. Of course it was.

“I did it for him! He never got justice! Every single one of them should pay for what they’ve done, for all of it! I know there are things that all of them haven’t admitted to, that’s why I created the truth spell I did. It took years, but I knew once I used it, he’d get what he deserved to see every single one of them behind bars. And now they just roam about like they own the world again, it was easy to find them and cast on them in Diagon. And it didn’t harm them none to tell the truth for once in their bloody lives! That’s a damned sight better than anything they did. This was decent! This was the right thing to do and you all here in the DMLE and the aurors too, you just sit on your hands and twiddle your thumbs because ‘you already tried them for their crimes’ and that’s just horseshit and the wizarding public knows it!”

Hermione bit back a smile. “So, you admit you not only crafted this truth spell but cast it on every single rumored dark wizard and witch you found wander Diagon, yes?”

“Of course, it’s going to get me a bloody Order of Merlin when the confessions from this latest spell come in.”

“Ah, so there have been multiple versions of this truth spell you’ve engineered?”

“Yes, three, the original, then one I modified to make them admit not just the truth but wrong things they’ve done, and then when that wasn’t specific enough wrong things they could get arrested for.”

“And you started recasting every time you made a new spell, so some people you may have cast one two or three times?”

“Yeah, got about half of them twice I think with either the second or the third spell, not everyone yet, but I just need some time of course if you’d let me have it.” He looked back to being eager again, like all these questions about the spell somehow meant she condoned his work.

“Mr. Diggory, I’m afraid I have something to tell you about just why your plan is wrong, besides the obvious fact that it is a heinous crime to curse people outside of the confines of battle.” She looked him dead in the eye. After he’d called Narcissa a bitch? She might just enjoy this a little bit more than she should. “Do you know that any use of a truth serum, outside of strictly controlled use in the hands of ministry officials with a mile of paperwork to justify said use, means that whatever secrets and truths are admitted under duress aren’t admissible in court? Every death eater and their wife could march into this office now, admit that they killed seven different people, and it wouldn’t matter. We could do  _ nothing _ with that information because it came from tainted evidence. The only one going to jail for a crime, Mr. Diggory, is you, for multiple counts of spelled assault, two counts of assault of an officer and another of a civilian, and resisting arrest.”

She stood and waved her wand and the recording she’d been making of the interview cut off and filed itself away with a zipping sound. “And you just confessed to all of it.”

He blinked up at her. “You’re lying.”

She smiled at him, her best public, sincere smile. “No, I’m not. You know I’m not. You cursed me after all and I haven’t broken the spell yet. I’ve only broken the one on Rosetta Hawthorn, one to find your magical signature so I could match it here to ministry records and then I immediately planned your arrest. There just simply hasn’t been time. So of course I’m telling the truth.”

He sputtered. “But I’m not a criminal! Why go after me like this!”

“I’m afraid you are. The charges are filed. There’s even an ad out in tomorrow’s paper requesting anyone under the truth curse come forward if they want to press charges against you. So it only gets worse from here for you, Mr. Diggory.” She paused for a moment. “That’s not even counting the fail-safe you wove into your spell. I tripped it while trying to remove the curse once. It could have killed Narcissa, would have if not for Andromeda Tonks knowing what to do. I’ll have to add that to the list of charges. You best hope that she’s the only one, or else there will be more attempted murder charges, and you’re already going away for a long while.”

He sputtered. “It wasn’t supposed to kill anyone, it was just supposed to hurt their magic!”

She looked at him carefully. “Used another spell you didn’t quite know the in’s and out’s of did you?”

“I read about it!” He defended.

“In one book?” She cocked an eyebrow.

The man stayed silent and looked away.

“That’s what I thought. Surely you know better than to do that. After all the work you put into the curse, I know you know better. You just didn’t care if it did hurt them, did you? Not if they were trying to escape your bastardized justice.” She shook her head and gathered up everything she’d brought into the room. Before she went though, she leaned forward and whispered, “and for the record, the second you touched Anathema and Narcissa? That was the second that made sure I’d find you just as fast as possible, because unlike you they are people worth protecting. They are redeemed, no matter what you think, and it doesn’t much matter if you don’t, because you don’t have a righteous leg to stand on. They’ve spent the years since the war becoming better people, can you say the same, Mr. Diggory? Because I don’t think you can. Have a nice day. I’ll see you in court.” She smiled again before exiting the room.

She walked out the door and down the hall a bit and right into the observation room that she’d stashed Anathema and Narcissa in before going in to interview Diggory. Both women looked up and smiled at her, at once both beaming happy smiles, and dark satisfied grins. Was that something they learned in Slytherin? It ought to be, she definitely couldn’t manage such a look.

“I have what I need from him. I have to draw up the paperwork and evidence for the attempted murder charge. I forgot about it in all the excitement. I don’t know how I did. I’ve never been more scared in my life. Well. At least since the war ended.” She shivered. She never wanted to see Narcissa like that ever again. She’d make sure he served time for that. If she got her way he’d never be out again.

Narcissa stepped forward, taking the had Hermione wasn’t holding all of her files and folders in and squeezing. “Darling, I’m fine now. There’s no need to relive it. You’ll file the paperwork and he’ll go to Azkaban to rot. I’m safe. Anathema is safe. You caught him.”

Anathema walked up to stand beside Narcissa, sandwiching their hands between hers. “And as soon as you file that paperwork, we have dinner reservations. The case is over and we can finally kiss you like you should be kissed.” Her eyes screamed that if she wanted more than that tonight she could certainly have it.

Hermione thought about that for a moment. She hadn’t ever really stuck to the third date rule. She had just gone with her feelings on when it was time to go home with another person. And these two? “I’ve been looking forward to it so much. I think perhaps you might know just how much I’ve been looking forward to it considering you’ve been waiting too, but, I think mine might be more.” She gestured between the two of them. “After all, I didn’t have the other one to kiss while I waited, now did I?”

Narcissa laughed softly. “No, you didn’t. But we’ll make it more than worth your wait.”

“I plan on making all of our waits worth it,” Anathema said with a smirk.

Hermione groaned. “Still at work Anathema. Give me like an hour, maybe two more, and then you can make all the innuendo you want because I’ll be able to  _ do  _ something about it.”

“I find that people when they are worked up a bit kiss better. For when you can do something about it, cara.”

“Right, ok then, we’re just going to have to file this paperwork very efficiently. No big deal. I can do that. I’m the brightest witch of my age.” She turned and exited the room, knowing the two other women would be right behind her.

She sat down at her desk and filled everything out in record time, aware of Narcissa and Anathema’s eyes on her. She did need to get Narcissa’s statement for part of it, and had to owl Andy for hers, which was distracting enough that she didn’t exactly boil alive trying to finish her job, tie up all the loose ends so the date could happen on technically department ok ground, though everyone might be side-eyeing her later. She didn’t care. The case was going to be officially closed and onto court when she was done and that was all that mattered. 

She sent the last paper off and stood to stretch. “Done.” She glanced at the clock, just before five. She would even have time to actually get ready and look nice for this date, miracle of miracles. Her eyes caught on the chalkboard. She hadn’t transformed it back into a chair just yet considering she’d only done one curse removal. Oh, she’d only done one removal. She blinked and looked at the two women in front of her. “I forgot about removing the curse from you both too.” She took out her wand. “I should do that before our date.” She trusted them enough to be honest with her, as much as they were comfortable with, and she wanted them to be comfortable on this date. Though after two months, it seemed almost normal for them to be under a curse. How time could breed complacency.

Anathema held up her hand. “Cara...could you, leave it for a little longer still.” She looked a bit uncertain. “I know that you know I killed most of my husbands, and have heard bits and pieces of how for some of them...I just want to put it all out on the table while I still can without getting you in trouble, yes? I, I need to know that for sure everything is ok in this before going forward, you understand?”

Hermione reached out towards Anathema. “I’ve already told you that it’s fine and that my hands aren’t completely clean either, but I’ll listen if you need me to. I always will.” And honestly, if she was in a relationship with this woman, she was just going to get good at not asking questions, because she wasn’t about to send her love to jail, ethics be damned. She trusted Anathema to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.

“Good, good.” She glanced at the open door and then back to Hermione. “Perhaps you would get ready with us at Black Manor?” A smile found its way onto her lips. “I might have cast a measurement charm on you when you weren’t looking and there may be a dress I think you’ll look sinful in hanging in our closet waiting for you.”

Hermione blinked at that. Getting ready with these two women? Well, truly there was only one answer, and that was yes, but the real question was would they actually make it out of the manor if she did.

“Alright,” Hermione agreed.

“Wonderful.” Anathema stood, grabbed Narcissa’s hand and then Hermione’s and tugged her towards the door. Hermione quickly cast for her belongings and then to lock the door as she was being dragged out of her own office. And honestly, while she was at it? She cast another spell to put a notice on her door that she’d be out of the office tomorrow and then it would be the weekend. Oh no, whatever would she do with a three day weekend with Anathema and Narcissa. She smiled to herself and then finally turned to walk with Anathema instead of being dragged.

Narcissa side-alonged her Black Manor’s foyer. “I’ll add you to the wards so you can come whenever you like,” she said with a small smile on her face, eyes a bit far away as if already imagining Hermione popping around randomly for tea or whatever else. Hermione already planned on making good use of that. She wanted to be with them as much as possible.

“I should key you into my manor’s wards as well. Not that I’m ever really there anymore, but still.” Anathema looped her arms through Narcissa’s. “I’ve rather accidentally moved in with our bella amore.”

“Accidentally,” Narcissa scoffed, “yes, sure, it was an accident. After the third date, I don’t think I could have removed you from this house without an act of Merlin himself.”

Anathema shrugged. “Probably not wrong. Now come on, I want to shower off the lingering smell of that factory, else we’ll smell like rust for the next forty years.” She shivered visibly and set off towards the stairs. “I’ll be in the shower, bella amore, when you’re done showing our dear sweet cara one of the guest bathrooms.”

Hermione groaned quietly. “Does she actually want us to go to dinner? Really? Because saying something like that says no she doesn’t.”

Narcissa chuckled, just a bit of sin to the noise. “Oh she does, because she picked the restaurant, and she does believe that at least you should get dinner before we ravish you.” She pouted a bit. “Why she doesn’t want you to stick to the three date rule is beyond me.”

“To be fair,” Hermione said as Narcissa led them up the stairs as well, “you went from friend to girlfriend in a day. And the third date was over in...what, less than a week? Maybe a week? It wasn’t as if you had to wait long. We’ve been waiting like a month for this arrest. I think that probably trumps the three date rule.”

“All good points, I suppose. I’m not truly put out anyway.” She didn’t look at Hermione, just smirked as she kept leading them down a rather long hallway. “I’m looking forward to being on my knees for you later. Goodness knows we’ve all talked about it so much, it would be a shame to wait. I’m just going to tease ‘thema about it for the rest of our lives. It will be fine.” There was a spark in her eyes. “I don’t mind where the teasing leads anyway.”

“Narcissa Calista Black, I swear to Merlin.” She pulled the woman to a stop and had her pinned up against the wall within a second. “Do I need to ask if you actually want to go to dinner?” She asked, an inch away from Narcissa’s face.

The other woman didn’t even try to look guilty. “Oh, I do, but I can’t say that this wasn’t entirely the plan, to have you pin me against the wall and take out some of the frustration. Anathema got so many more kisses than I did a few weeks ago. I think it’s rather fitting I should make up some ground, don’t you?”

Oh fuck it, the case was closed and well, she wasn’t going to fuck Narcissa in the hall for the first time. There was no harm in this now. So she kissed Narcissa, hard and bruising, putting all the frustration of the last few weeks into the kiss. Narcissa gave just as good as she got and Hermione felt her knees going just a bit weak. Circe, she wanted this date to come to its end so she could fuck this woman senseless, preferably while Anathema was doing the same to her. She sighed and let the kiss taper off. They had reservations. She still had to shower and do something with her hair, and makeup, and get dressed. She couldn’t spend the next few hours kissing Narcissa until she forgot where she began and the other woman ended, not that she wouldn’t like to try that sometime soon.

“Did that suffice?” Hermione asked, a bit breathless.

“Oh, more than.” Narcissa cleared her throat. “I’m not exactly sure I’ll be able to walk for the next few minutes. Perhaps I don’t want to go to dinner after all.”

Hermione snickered and pushed back so there was a foot of distance between them again. “Regardless, I need a shower before anything can happen. Anathema was right, we do all smell of old musty factory. I think I’m going to be coughing up dust for the next week.”

Narcissa pushed herself slowly off the wall, testing the stability of her knees for a moment before nodding. “You might be right about that. Though did you see that Anathema kept the pan she knocked out Diggory with as a souvenir?”

Hermione snorted. “I did not, but I’m not surprised. Is she going to hang it on the wall?”

“No idea what she’s doing with it yet, but I’m sure it will be something rather over the top. She’ll make a production out of it, probably will lead to some sort of sexual escapade. The possibilities are endless with that woman.” Her smile was rather lovesick and Hermione found it adorable. “Anyway.” She shook herself and walked down a few more doors to a room just shy of the end of the hall and opened it. 

Hermione followed her into a room that was probably the size of at least half of her apartment, maybe three quarters if she was being honest, light, airy, comfortable. Not exactly something she would imagine being in Black Manor, but really, the whole place, what she’d managed to take in other than Narcissa, hadn’t exactly looked like what she’d thought. She wondered if Narcissa had remodeled when she moved back in five years before.

“The bathroom is through there, everything you need should already be there.” She waved her wand and a set of lingerie much more daring than Hermione herself would buy appeared on the bed along with a silk robe. Narcissa smiled at Hermione’s rather slack expression before continuing. “After your shower, my room is the one at the end of the hall next door. There’s plenty of room for all of us to get ready together and for Anathema to tell you of all her rather...interesting exploits in detail.” She stepped closer to Hermione and took her hand. “I know you’ve said you were fine in the past but...please don’t break her heart, Hermione. Nor mine. You know who she is at her core, even if you don’t know the particulars of everything she’d done.”

She reached out to cup Narcissa’s face. “I’ve gotten past the fact that she’s killed six men. I think whatever comes after that will be much tamer, honestly, especially since I already know one was stabbed and another bludgeoned to death with a cast iron pan.” She paused for a moment. “She really didn’t pick the neatest of ways to kill her husbands, did she?”

“To be fair, those were the two messiest I believe.” She shrugged. “Needs must?”

Hermione snorted out a laugh at that. “I suppose.” She kissed Narcissa again lightly. Oh, soon she was going to be able to do that whenever she wanted. She would get to kiss Anathema Zabini and Narcissa Black on a whim. The two most beautiful witches in all of England. Her. Merlin, she was lucky. “Now I think you have someone waiting on you in the shower. I’ll be in in a bit.”

“See you then.” She cast another salacious look at the lingerie before cocking an eyebrow at Hermione and exiting the room.

Hermione groaned. The death of her. Really. Truly. They’d not only bought her a dress but lingerie to go with it? Yup, she was going to die. But first, maybe a bit of a cold shower before she actually washed might be in order if they were actually going to make it to dinner. She walked into the bathroom and turned the faucet to icy and stepped in, shivering in an instant. Yes. That was better. One couldn’t have dirty thoughts when their teeth were chattering after all.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some Anathema murder backstory.

She finished her shower, on a much more normal temperature setting after the first few minutes, and dried off carefully. She was still rather dealing with the fact that Anathema and Narcissa had bought her lingerie. Daring lingerie. Which, she had owned her own lingerie, of course, she was a grown woman, but well. Her choices were not the ones that Anathema and Narcissa made. But the real issue was that both of the other women would know what she had on under her robe, would be imagining taking it off of her at the end of the night, had picked it out with that in mind. And well now she was warm enough again the cold shower hadn’t done much good. She was going to put those very, very skimpy underwear on and ruin them in a matter of minutes. She couldn’t really regret it, but she was going to have to mentally prepare for it.

She wasn’t really prepared by the time she’d dried off, but, well, she’d faced worse even less prepared. So she stepped into the bedroom again, and put on the bra and panties. They fit perfectly. Whatever measurement spell Anathema had used had done a good job. She turned and looked at herself in a conveniently placed full-length mirror and stared. Merlin, she might just love this bra for the rest of time, what it did to her cleavage was nothing short of a miracle. She groaned slightly to herself, already imagining Narcissa burying her face there and nipping at the thin skin. Fuck, that would feel sinful. And Anathema would be slipping the panties off of her at the same time, kissing her neck from behind.

If she was going to get out of this room without having to get herself off once to function, she had to get a move on now. Right now. She pulled herself away from the mirror and the fantasies it made her have and looked back to the robe she’d yet to touch. It was short. Of course it was short. What did she expect from the two Slytherin women? It would cover everything, but only just. She shook her head but smiled at the same time as she slipped on the soft silk and tied it in front of her. Life would never be uneventful with them, surely. She stroked the silk sleeve of the robe gently, and she had a feeling that this robe would be rather a staple of her manor-wear in the future. Just the robe. Nothing else under it. She had to keep it interesting too after all.

She pushed out of the bedroom and knocked on Narcissa’s door. She paused for a moment, not really knowing what to do, but it wasn’t like they weren’t expecting her, so she just grabbed the knob and opened it and stepped inside. If the room she’d been in had been almost the size of her apartment, this one was twice its size. There were two separate sitting areas. It wasn’t really just one room, but more of a suite anyway. Godric. And it was beautifully decorated, warmer than the guest bedroom she’d showered in, homier. It screamed Narcissa through and through, though the knick-knacks and discarded items of clothing here and there screamed Anathema’s doing. She spied a window alcove with a pile of books already on a coffee table beside it. Oh, that would be a lovely place to read on a rainy England day. Curled up reading with Narcissa would be even better.

Hermione walked through the rooms slowly, taking everything in before she hit the bedroom. Morgana, her bed was huge, larger than a king-size bed for sure. Large enough that Hermione was sure that she probably got custom sheets made for it. And dear  _ Merlin _ there were posts in the headboard and footboard clearly meant to have ropes and handcuffs threaded through them for various activities. She fanned herself. No, she wasn’t going to imagine Narcissa tied up, not right now, she’d have time for that later. Right now she had to find Narcissa and Anathema, then she could imagine fucking the two of them on that huge bed and then falling asleep with them. There was no way that bed wouldn’t be as soft as a cloud and she would sleep wonderfully after a few orgasms. She wasn’t going to want to leave ever.

She already didn’t want to, really, so that was fine.

“Narcissa, Anathema?” She called into the room.

Anathema’s head popped out from what Hermione assumed was the closet. “Ah, right on time, cara.” She held out her hand and Hermione walked across the room and took it. The older witch pulled her forward, into her arms, and then into a kiss. She melted into it, wrapping her arms around Anathema’s silk covered back, feeling the warmth of her skin through the fabric. She smelled clean, a hint of citrus and cocoa butter and she tasted like mint toothpaste. It was perfect as far as she was concerned.

“Hello there,” she said when they finally pulled apart. 

“Ciao, bella.” Anathema smirked down at her. She reached out for Hermione’s still damp hair. “I see you must have just as much fun with your hair as I do with mine.” She scrunched her nose up. “I had to wash it early because of that nasty place. Can’t have anything smelly musty tonight, now can I?”

Hermione snorted. “Believe me, you should have seen it when I was younger. Ask Narcissa. It was...do you know Cousin It from the Addams Family?”

“No, you’ll have to introduce me.” She tugged Hermione into the closet. “Now come, I’m sure bella amore’s closet will rather surprise you.” 

Anathema pulled her into the single biggest closet she’d ever been in, mirroring setups on each side, clearly meant to be his and hers, but now was definitely hers and hers. She wasn’t sure it everything was Narcissa’s or if one side was actually Anathema’s. She wasn’t looking closely enough to try and pick out things that she recognized, her eyes were just darting everywhere, taking it in. Merlin, there was enough room that they could clothe a small third world country from the outfits in here. Well provided there were all exactly Narcissa’s size considering everything she had was expertly tailored. But the racks of shoes set out neatly in pairs, the display cabinets of sparkling jewelry, glowing faintly from the wards on them, the carousels of accessories and bags. It was exactly the type of closet she’d imagined Narcissa having, and yet it was somehow still more grand than anything she’d let herself come up with.

The other woman pulled her towards the back of the closet where there was a huge vanity that would more than accommodate the three of them getting ready together and a large nook that was clearly meant for getting dressed. Three dresses hung there, one silver, one emerald green, and one black. She had exactly no idea which one was hers just looking at them, part of her said the emerald green one, since that would be amusing to the two of them, putting her in Slytherin’s main color, but also that shade would look absolutely gorgeous on Anathema. She rather hoped that dress was for her. Narcissa would look almost ethereal in silver, like an elf from the old mythos, and taking that off of her at the end of tonight had more than a little draw. She hummed quietly, tearing her eyes away from the dresses to meet Narcissa’s eyes in the mirror.

“Has the closet rendered you speechless, darling?” She said, pulling out different bottles and palettes, giving them a glance before moving on, occasionally putting one to the side.

“Mostly imagining both of you in those dresses is the main thing tying my tongue, but the closet is very, very impressive.” She walked over and sat down beside the woman, looking in the mirror that had perfect lighting to do hair and makeup, because of course it did, Narcissa owned it.

She hummed, amused. “The best news is, it’s spelled to be ever-expanding and to put everything back where it goes once you exit the room. So moving your things in won’t be an issue.”

Hermione swallowed hard at that. Oh moving in talk? Already? Before their first official date? That should be putting the cart before the horse, but honestly it just made her feel warm, sure, and mostly like she wanted to kiss the woman senseless. And since they were about to go on a date? She did. She leaned forward and kiss Narcissa soundly, and the woman returned the kiss enthusiastically, drawing her in, drawing her closer, slipping her fingers under the neck of Hermione’s robe, feeling at the soft skin there, pulling shivers from her. 

“Godric, Narcissa,” she said, pulling back, breathing a bit hard. “Between you and Anathema it’ll be a wonder if we actually get out of here.” She leaned her head into Narcissa’s neck, smelling floral body wash, more gardenias she thought, maybe rose too, and a vaguely fruit shampoo though she couldn’t place just what. She smelled delicious and clean and she wanted to taste her skin, but she knew if she did that, they certainly wouldn’t be leaving. She would probably have Narcissa right here, on the bench to the vanity in the closet. Though there wasn’t really room for Anathema on the bench. Perhaps she’d have to rethink that.

“What a shame, not leaving the house, just ravishing you here and ordering takeaway for dinner.” Narcissa didn’t sound sorry about that possibility at all.

“Now, now you two,” Anathema said plopping down on Hermione’s other side. “Behave, dinner first, the second date can be us fucking Hermione within an inch of her life, showing her pleasures she’s never felt before and ordering takeaway. Perhaps tomorrow. Or is it still technically the first date if you never leave to go home? Mmm, unclear, I don’t much care so long as I get to taste you both as often as I want and hear your pretty screams for me.”

“Anathema,” Hermione groaned. “You aren’t helping your case here.” But she pulled back and sighed, shaking herself a bit. She had to get to taming her hair before it fully dried or she’d have to get it wet again to have any hope of getting it to do what she wanted. She pulled her wand from her sleeve, thinking about what she wanted to do with it. She glanced back at the dresses. Something that would go with any one of them.

Anathema set a bottle in front of Hermione. “Narcissa may have poked around a bit via legilimency to figure out what products you use. It’s also why she’s so good at buying Christmas gifts. Never really notice when she’s poking around and she always finds what she wants.”

“I never go any deeper than surface level,” Narcissa defended, blushing a bit. “Or at least try not to, it’s a natural instinct.”

Hermione blinked at that, weighed it in her head for a moment before she spoke, because it could be a big issue, would be if it were anyone else. She didn’t like legilimency, not really, too many memories of the war were wrapped up in it, then being in the DMLE didn’t help either where criminals always tried to get a leg up anywhere they could but, “I don’t mind really. I trust you.” And it was more than true.

“Glad to hear it,” Narcissa said, more than a bit relieved. She waved her wand and the rest of the things she must have bought for Hermione specifically came to rest neatly in front of her, her normal hair products and makeup, including a set of her favorite makeup brushes were all there to use.

“Just how long have you two planned this exactly?” Hermione asked, reaching for the bottle of leave-in conditioner and squirting some onto her hands and working it through her hair.

Anathema just smirked at her, grabbing a bottle of her own preferred moisturizer and working it through her hair with a wide-toothed comb. “Slytherins like to plan and plot, cara, you know this.”

“So since you asked me out then,” Hermione concluded, reaching for the next thing, a serum that she used when she was going to do something more than just her normal work bun or ponytail.

“Perhaps,” Narcissa said, working something into her hair that left it even shinier than it already was, giving her hair just a little more bounce. Definitely not something she would ever need, she had enough bounce to go around, but it was interesting to see the other women getting ready, in the middle of their routines, bare-faced like she was sure no one else had seen them in years. It was truly more intimate than she’d thought about and it made her smile.

“Well, I’m not complaining.” She frowned at herself in the mirror, putting the bottle down, looking at her hair, now looking perfectly manageable for the moment. Something that wouldn’t come undone easily later so her hair would stay out of the way when they were in bed together. Hmm, that meant braids of some sort, and most likely an updo. Ah, she had just the thing. She grabbed her wand again and waved it gently, too hard with hair styling spells and things were pulled so tight you had an instant headache. Her hair twisted into three separate braids on each side, joining together in the back and tucking into a twist at the base of her neck. It could use the pearl pins she had at home to up the elegance, but it would definitely do.

Narcissa took one look at her and said, “I have just the thing for that.” And another twitch of her wand and opal pins flew into her hand. She secured them carefully, not messing up Hermione’s spelled work, just pinning it more securely and she sat back with a smile. “There, lovely.” Her eyes met Anathema’s and she smiled, grabbing another hair decoration out of the air and handing it to the Italian witch. “And that will look lovely on you, darling.”

“I did have one of mine in mind, but I see you’re rather dead set on marking me with a known Black family heirloom tonight, Hermione too, if I recall. Those were your great aunt’s favorite pins, yes?”

Narcissa blushed just a bit, but nodded, looking at Anathema steadily. “Of course. I’ll tell the world you are both mine in any way I can. I would shout from the rooftops but that doesn’t really fit with a lady of my standing, not that I still haven’t considered it.”

“Well, I don’t mind being marked as yours, certainly, bella amore.” She snorted out a laugh. “And I would join you on the rooftop.”

“You both are too cute when you’re so in love like this, I can hardly stand it without ripping my hair out sometimes. Godric, I just--” she stopped, not really having the words. She knew what word would go there in the future, but this was only the first date. Not yet. Not yet, but probably soon.

Both of them glanced at one another and just grinned. “And you are rather adorable yourself when you think we’re cute, darling.” Narcissa leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her cheek before turning back to the mirror. She hummed for a moment before waving her wand and her hair wove itself into a crown braid, a sapphire pin flying in and nestling itself perfectly at the back pinning the last strands in place. So that ruled out the emerald dress then for her and would look best with the silver one. She bit her lip at the fact that her imagination had been right. Oh, she was going to love taking that dress off her later.

She managed to pull her gaze away and back to what she should be doing. They all worked quietly for a few minutes. It amazed her just how comfortable she was just existing with the two of them. There was no need to fill the space with words, just being with them was enough. She’d had bouts like this before in her other relationships, but this was by far the most comfortable that she’d ever been. So she worked her way through moisturizing, applying concealer and then foundation before Anathema started talking. Hermione wasn’t sure it was actually her idea to do so, more likely the curse, just based on how fast the words came out.

“My first husband was a horror show. My parents were more liberal than most purebloods, the Italian families aren’t so stuck on being pure to the last, more that the line is prestigious, and if there is a better muggleborn than a pureblood available, well blood runs true in only two generations and the bump in status is well worth it. The fact that it keeps the gene pool more diverse does not hurt. If I had found someone to marry, they wouldn’t have stopped me, but when I didn’t, they grew antsy, set me up on more than a few dates despite my protests, and eventually, I was given a choice of the most interested three. Considering they were all men I was never going to be happy, with a woman, perhaps I might have tried, but none would have been my bella amore, so it might have been a stretch. So faced with a choice...well, I am who I am. It wasn’t going to end well for one of us, and I was determined it wasn’t going to be me. I did my research, and I picked him, but I at twenty I didn’t truly know what was going to happen. It was...to say it was unpleasant is an understatement. He was verbally abusive to me, his staff, and the number of illegal things he got away with because he had money was truly heinous. Not to mention his company dumping sludge they deemed harmless but surely knew it was poisonous into the water and then slowing down the safety study on the chemical with bribes for years.”

She swallowed hard and Hermione reached out and laid her hand on Anathema’s thigh. It was one thing to joke about it, but telling her all of this had to be so much worse, a reliving of everything in the past, of years she’d hated, of things she was forced to do. Anathema’s smile at her was shaky, eyes clear, but still with a spark of fear in them. That Hermione would reject her after everything when she knew the full truth. Honestly though, there wasn’t anything she could say that would change her mind. She was here. She knew what the DMLE reports had told her, what Anathema had joked about, she knew enough already, and she was still here. She was still here and she would be for as long as these two women would have her. But still, Anathema looked away again, unable to continue without some distraction. She went back to brushing her foundation on in careful strokes.

“Ironically one of his biggest points to shout at me about was the fact that I wasn’t a powerful witch and that any children we had would be no more than duds, that I didn’t even know non-verbal magic, let alone wandless magic, and what sort of school what Hogwarts coming to these days.” She met Hermione’s eyes in the mirror. “He didn’t realize that I knew both of those disciplines, of course, I just never let him know about it. There was certainly a reason I never had that man’s child. A wandless, non-verbal contraception spell is difficult. Shoving him how the stairs in one burst of magic after he threatened to do the same if I wasn’t pregnant by the end of the month? Easy enough.” She blinked and looked away again.

“I told my parents of the basic horrors that man had foisted upon me, and they were horrified, of course. They apologized and promised no more, they were good parents overall, if a bit old fashioned forcing me into that marriage in the first place, but they stuck to that promise despite the fact that I had produced no heirs. Of course society at large hadn’t made any such promises, and being who I am, well, I drew a great amount of attention, young, beautiful, newly widowed, and rich with my dead husband’s fortune. It was a man’s dream. I wasn’t left alone for a second any time I left the manor. For two years I put up with it until I rather couldn’t take it anymore. The only way to end it was to become attached again, and no one would respect an attachment to a woman. I did try, believe me, but no. So I picked out another man, still not a good man, at least in business practices, still a man that if I had to, I would feel no guilt shoving him down the stairs, but he seemed personally like a nice man.”

Hermione swallowed hard. Men who were bad people in the business world were bad people overall, the charismatic ones could just hide it better. She’d seen enough of them come through spelled assault over the years. But Anathema had been twenty-two and hoping for a better result. That could blind anyone.

“Of course he wasn’t, but it did take him longer. He was sunshine and roses and loving words for a year and then slowly, every time I said no to anything, anything at all, it didn’t hae to be physical advances, just disagreeing about what to have for dinner, and his reactions escalated. He would go on about how my answer was always no, which led to throwing things, which led to hexes and curses. He was careful never to leave a mark. One night he found me in the kitchen, grabbing a midnight snack, nothing even remotely out of the ordinary, but he just snapped, screaming at me about how I was snacking because I’d hated dinner because he picked it and I hated him. He wasn’t wrong on both counts, he’d picked something I hated, and by that point how couldn’t I hate him, I was making moves to file divorce papers, to get out without killing him, to leave back to a life of men bothering me because it was far better than whatever hell I was in there, but then he threatened to kill me, actually picked up a knife. I picked up a cast iron pan first, and hit him hard enough the first time he was dead before he hit his head on the counter and damaged it more. That did cover signs of what I’d done though, as hard as he went down into it. And at that point...I was twenty-three, had killed two husbands, was sitting on inheriting another fortune, and knew what would come next. And I just decided that if this was going to keep happening? I might as well have fun with it. Oh, and have fun I did.” She smiled for the first time since she’d started telling her story. “Because standing there, with that pan in my hand, at that point? Was the best I’d felt in ages. So I started to plan right there and then. I spent money on getaway houses in places no one would think of, on retaining a shark of a lawyer, and everything else I could think of to help me. Because if awful men were going to throw themself at me, they were going to die the second they deserved it and I wouldn’t serve an ounce of time for it. The money I had leftover after that, I donated a good bit of it to charities they would’ve hated, and then went on, business as normal. And it all happened just as I thought.”

She sighed and looked back to Hermione, a bit of anxiety in her eyes, checking to see if she was still with her. She was, hand still firmly on Anathema’s thigh, more horrified that two men had abused Anathema so that about what she’d done to them. The plan going forward, well, that was a bit much for her tastes, but she had a feeling she still knew where this was going, and she still wouldn’t mind even if Anathema had gone into her next four marriages with the intent to kill the man the second he did something wrong. Anathema must have sensed that because she relaxed and went back to telling her story.

“My third husband found me five months later. A few other men had made moves on me before him, but they were easy enough to dissuade, which was fine with me. Those who could take no for an answer weren’t who I was looking for, but then there he was. Wouldn’t take no for an answer, honestly wouldn’t leave me alone at any hour of the day. He thought he should be the most important thing in my life just because he was moderately handsome, rich, and a pureblood. Certainly verged into stalking behavior. And while that was going on I looked into just how he made his money. Arms smuggling mainly, and not for the decent side of the fight, a bit of human trafficking while he was at it. He fit perfectly. So when he asked me to marry him after three months I said yes of course. He wanted a big to-do, actually to date that’s the most extravagant wedding I’ve had and I’ve married men richer than him. He was a bastard, but the man knew a good party planner when he saw one. He made it three months after that.”

Her grip on her makeup brush was so hard it blanched the skin of her fingers. She took a deep breath and placed it down carefully, magic starting to crackle around her in her rage. IT had been literal years and yet she was still that angry. Merlin, what had he done.

“He made the mistake of bringing one of the girls home with him, called it a little surprise since I’d told him that I didn’t mind intimacies with the fairer sex. She was sixteen, a muggle, and scared out of her mind. She only spoke Russian, no real English, though she understood enough to follow his orders. He didn’t think I knew Russian. To be fair, I didn’t advertise it. I learned mostly to set up a hideaway in the tundra there. But I understood her. And she whispered for help.” She turned to look at Hermione again. “The irony of it all is that his operation always kept muggle drugs on them, mostly to knock the girls out when they weren’t needed or were being transported so they couldn’t escape. He flashed the syringe at her when she wouldn’t do something he asked, thinking I didn’t see. I did. It was easy enough to make like I was going to undress him and then stab it into his thigh. I gave him the whole vial. It was enough to kill him. Helped my case that he was a known user of party drugs. He’d just gone too far. Such a shame. I got the girl back to her family and dismantled his entire operation piece by piece until everyone was either dead or in jail and made sure every girl on record was returned home. The remainder of his fortune after that went to charities for victims of human trafficking. I hope he hates that as he burns in whatever cesspit the afterlife has for men like him.”

She picked back up her brush again and started to smooth out the foundation she’d missed when her hands started to shake. “Then there was Blaise’s father. If I’ve ever loved any man, it was him. He came up to me at the funeral for the third, and he actually told me that he hated the man and was glad he was dead, especially before he could do something to me. After all the speeches about what a good man my former husband had been, it was refreshing. And then he offered up his protection because while I was a fierce and powerful witch in my own right, my husband had been into the seedy side of the world, and he wasn’t sure if I had figured it out yet. I told him that I had, and said that not all tragic deaths are accidents. He just looked at me and smiled and said ‘no, a death like that for a man like him is a triumph, not a tragedy.’ That was the start of it, with my Orsetto. The dinners and dates after that came quickly, but he took his time, he always checked in, always made sure it was something I wanted, always listened. He proposed after two years, waited another two to tie the knot, not in a hurry, just glad to spend the time with me. And after another two years, we had Blaise. Our beautiful boy, my little tesorino. I thought two was our lucky number after everything. He died when Blaise was two.”

Hermione could take no more. The woman looked like she was about to cry and she couldn’t stand it. She pressed herself into Anathema’s side, wrapping her arms around her, just holding her, letting Anathema go on with a fond, if watery, smile on her face. 

“He would’ve loved you, cara. He was always walking around with a book, always tinkering with something, just so very smart, but down to earth. You remind me a great deal of him sometimes.” She held her hand to her heart. “And it aches, but fondly, when you do.”

She just held Anathema for a long few minutes. Her makeup was half done, so was Anathema’s and the clock was ticking until their reservation but it didn’t matter. She would sit here as long as the other woman needed.

“He was building a pool by himself, one for Blaise when he got older and could enjoy it greatly. His favorite thing to do as a child had been to swim and he wanted to share that with our boy. He slipped on a loose tile while doing it and fell, cracked his head open on a pallet of the same tiles. They say he died rather instantly, and I hope it’s true, because I was in the house with Blaise trying to put him down for a nap. I didn’t notice he hadn’t come in for water or lemonade or just to tease me for a few hours. And then I found him. Ironically his death was probably the one I was suspected of the most, but I have no idea why. He had no real fortune, was beloved by everyone, anyone they talked to said that we were perfectly in love, and yet. I spent months fending the aurors off after that. No other murder I committed ever came close. That just made it worse, honestly, having to relive it over and over again, and then having to remain strong because I had Blaise to take care of. And Blaise is a spitting image of him. It was…it was a great deal.”

She hugged the other woman harder. She’d be looking into who handled her case and having a word with them. Was it really professional, no, could she make it professional sounding enough, yes. And she would. Because no one, especially not someone she loved deserved to go through that. She blinked. Someone she loved. She’d thought those words. Hadn’t even stopped to think about using it. And here she was. She wasn’t panicked. She just. If anything she felt warm, certain, loved in return as Anathema dropped a kiss on the crown of her head and sighed.

“It was almost a relief actually when the men started to flow in again, less now that I was nearing thirty and had a child, but I was still touted as the most beautiful witch in all of England even then.”

“They weren’t wrong. You and Narcissa are definitely the most beautiful witches in England,” Hemione blurted out, feeling the truth spell tug on her a bit to get her to speak. Well. It wasn’t wrong.

“Oh, cara, you are truly a delight.” She leaned down to kiss Hermione again for a long moment before pulling back and clearing her throat. Anymore kissing like that and they wouldn’t be doing their makeup anymore. She sighed and let go of Anathema for now. She would get to hold her later, skin to skin, and it would be even better. She set back to finishing her own makeup, glancing at Narcissa who despite not being wrapped around Anathema, still wasn’t any further to completed with her look than they were. She’d been too wrapped up in the moment Anathema and Hermione were having, too.

“Well, my fifth husband found me. He was good at hiding himself, I’ll give him that. I almost thought he was another like Blaise’s father. Almost. But something stayed my hand before I could get too involved. Still, it was enough that I accepted his proposal after a year, let him meet Blaise, albeit with my wand in my hand at all times, and married him six months after that. I still never left him alone with Blaise, which I became intimately thankful for later.” She took another deep breath, but this anger was colder, and honestly, much more terrifying.

“Did he do something to Blaise?”

“He did. And I killed him for it. The thing I was missing was that while his ventures seemed to be wholly legal entities, and for at least some part they were, for something to be completely a front that’s a harder business to run than being somewhat legitimate, at least in terms of police attention, so I’ve come to understand. But the main way he made his money was through laundering money for the mob, drug smugglers, anyone really, he didn’t much care so long as he got his cut. And it was a rather large empire, if I were impressed by such things, I would’ve been, but well, I killed men like him, so.” She shrugged as if that explained everything which it did in a way. Not impressive, disgusting, to a higher level than Hermione even found it, and she was both the Golden Girl and head of a DMLE unit.

“I had gone out to run an errand, something I couldn’t take Blaise with me on, and had left him with his nanny, a woman I trusted with my life, and with Blaise’s of course. She wouldn’t leave him alone with him, she knew the standing order, she agreed with it, quite frankly. But I got home a bit early. She was gone. I found out later that he had threatened her mother, and even then wouldn’t leave so he knocked her out and sent her off to St. Mungos claiming she’d fallen and hit her head. It took three curse breakers to remove the spell on her and took over a week. I used his money to pay for her treatment of course. Because he wasn’t expecting me home so soon and I heard him talking, so I went to find him, of course, to tell him I was home, and found him with Blaise in his lap, talking to him as would any person to a toddler, but he was explaining why my  _ son _ had to die, to make way for  _ our  _ heir. That he couldn’t have Blaise making the line of succession complicated, that a business of his would only go to his flesh and blood. He had a knife on the desk in front of him, a cursed blade, actually, one that guaranteed death with just a knick. I saw that, heard the words he was saying and was across the room in a moment.”

A smirk started to curl itself onto her face. “He liked to keep daggers around, his family collected them, had for generations, both muggle and magical. So it was easy to pull a muggle blade off the wall and slip it between his ribs. I hit his heart on the first try, healed the entrance wound but nothing else, and then made it look like he cut himself polishing the cursed blade. The aurors barely questioned it, especially after the nanny came forward and told them what he’d done to her, that he wanted to get Blaise alone for who knew what. It was an easy picture to paint with the cursed blade, of course. After his death, well, he didn’t much have to worry about passing an empire onto his heir. I dismantled him like I had every other one before. Most of the money went to charities to support victims of the men he helped to fund. Another part went into a sizable trust fund for Blaise to use to pay for his post-Hogwarts education and whatever else he desired after such things were obtained. He bought a flat in London with it, I believe. Number vie would’ve rather hated it.”

“Honestly I would’ve stabbed him more than once. Maybe a few dozen times. He had it coming. Who in Merlin’s name kills a kid?” She knew there were many people of course, but still. To kill your wife’s child just so he couldn’t claim anything in the future? It was insane.

“Yes, well, he isn’t a problem anymore, cara, most obviously. It doesn’t really matter how many times I stabbed him to achieve that end, just that he ended up dead.”

“I agree with our darling, ‘thema. I would’ve stabbed him until he looked much like mincemeat,” Narcissa said, putting the final touches on her eyeliner. “If anyone had even insinuated that they would've killed Draco…” she trailed off, arching a blonde eyebrow.

“Fair enough, bella amore, I mean, you did lie to the most powerful dark wizard of our age to protect your son. It is the same principle. You only did as much as you needed to do, no more.”

Narcissa thought about that for a second and nodded. “I see your point. Excessive stabbing really isn’t the Slytherin way, but still, emotionally, at least more than once feels correct in this instance. Four-year-old Baise was adorable. Oh Salazar, that lisp he had at that age.” She held her hand to her chest. “Babies grow up far, far too fast.”

“They do indeed, bella mia, they do indeed.”

Hermione’s mind slipped to that imagined picture of what their children would look like and had to focus on something else to control the heart-melting she was feeling. She started to put on her own eye makeup, something dramatic, but not too much. She was never a woman for too much, that was more Anathema’s job in this relationship and she certainly was more than ok with that. No matter what the woman would be drop-dead gorgeous. Both her and Narcissa would. Just how had she gotten together with both of them again? What gods had she pleased to get such a gift? She didn’t much know, but she was thankful she had.

“After that,” Anathema continued after a minute’s pause, “I took a few years off. I needed to make sure that Blaise wouldn’t be put in such a situation again. When he was old enough to understand that the men interested in me weren’t good men and that he should never be alone with them, then I started to go out again. That, and after he had had more self-defense lessons than anyone else his age. I believe he always still carries a dagger on him at all times, maybe even the same one I gave him.”

“Wait Blaise always had a knife on him at Hogwarts?” She’d never noticed but then again she hadn’t exactly been paying attention. Mostly she’d just tried to stop herself from punching Draco. Blaise was rather tolerable beside him and didn’t warrant a lot of her attention. Oh Godric, she was certainly going to get a lot of attention from him when his mother told him they were dating. Was Blaise going to give her the shovel talk? Honestly, he didn’t need to really, it was obvious that Anathema could take care of herself, but still, he was her only son after all. She could understand the need.

Draco on the other hand? Oh Merlin, she was in for it. 

“Why not?” Anathema said, putting down her mascara to look at Hermione. “It’s not as if any rules forbid it. Hogwarts is so concerned about magical assault they don’t much think about physical assault.”

Hermione glanced at Narcissa and they both snorted out a laugh. Yeah, she’d found that out when she’d gotten off rather scott free for punching Draco third year. “Well, that I do remember at least. I punched Draco and nothing really came of it. Honestly, I think McGonagall was a bit proud of me?”

“That does track with her.” Narcissa shook her head. “Not that thirteen-year-old boys don’t deserve to be punched, but if you could have punched someone else other than my son, I would have appreciated it. Even if I’m sure he was spewing Lucius’s drivel.” She rolled her eyes.

She waved her off. “We made up later eighth year anyway. He’s a good man now. Though I fully expect him to bring it up again when we tell him we’re dating. And probably every Christmas for the rest of our lives. He does get the dramatic tendencies from you and you can’t deny that.”

“Not this time since I’m still under the curse, no.” She pouted a bit. “Anathema is the more dramatic of the two of us.”

Hermione considered that for a moment. “I’ll accept it.”

Anathema just nodded. “I never said anything to the contrary, bella amore. I know who I am.”

They all finished their eye makeup in relative peace. Hermione had been right, Anathema’s look was suitable dramatic, bright green eyeshadow bringing out the flecks of gold in her irises. She didn’t really want to look away from the woman. Yet she still had to put on lipstick. A rather unfortunate dilemma.

“By the sixth husband, the men were more careful,” Anathema said, fingers hovering over different shades of lipstick, trying to pick one. Really anything would go with her lovely dark skin, but the green eyeshadow was much more of a problem. No matter what Hermione was kissing it off of her at the end of the night. “My sixth husband heard the rumors that I was a black widow, laughed with me at them. Ironic considering. But he never gave me a personal reason to kill him, at least, not for two years after we married. All of that time I spent gathering information on the network of sweatshops he owned, getting together the plans I would need to make those companies legitimate, well-paying workplaces, figuring out how he got the women, tracking the smugglers down, so that when he did die, it would take me no time to flip everything he controlled, so that no one would escape my reach. It wasn’t until almost three years in that he crossed a line with me, he demanded a child, didn’t care if I wanted another, said that I had to give him one, vaguely insinuated that if I didn’t he would make one by force. Nothing overt, nothing that to anyone else would sound wrong, but I knew what he meant. And from the look in his eyes, he knew that I knew and was pleased. He said he was a good husband, a good father to Blaise, and this was the only thing he’d ever asked for from me, and that he would love a child of his own, so I should please consider it. And then after that he never let me get close enough to do anything that would make him cease to exist. He’d only come within grabbing distance of me when I was fully naked, and strong as I am, choking a man to death might not have worked out in my favor. So I waited, took Blaise off for a vacation, said it was a bit of mother-son time before things got hectic with a new baby. He ate it up.” She smiled as if pleased by her own wording.

Hermione remembered the feeling that Anathema had poisoned one of her husbands and cocked an eyebrow at her. “So you poisoned him?”

“Mhm, I sent him some gelato from Italy. He always did like ice cream.”

“Cyanide?”

“Indeed. Charmed so the gelato would disappear after an hour. It came back to me half empty, still frosty from where he’d put it back in the freezer, I knew he’d be long dead by the time I got home. It only takes about a tablespoon to kill a man. The gelato had five in it. Amazing what sugar and a bit of almond essence can mask. And aurors don’t check for decidedly muggle toxins. I’d determined that before picking my poison. A great many potions of course use toxic ingredients in small quantities, but not cyanide. Only muggles use it, mostly for pesticides. And they would’ve had no idea where he’d gotten it from besides. After they discovered the sweatshops, they just thought one of his former victims had gotten revenge, but they couldn’t much figure out who or how. A shame. I flipped his empire the next day. I still turn a rather pretty penny from those workshops even now. I invest most of it of course, back into benefits for the workers and higher wages. The clothing they make is good quality work, and good work should always be rewarded. The men getting him people to work in his little hellholes? Most of them are in the most hellish prisons I could find. Easy enough to do when a person has committed crimes in a great many of them.”

“And the seventh?” Hermione asked, turning towards her, everything done, just waiting for her to put on her dress and then she would be date ready. And she was ready to go on their date. Six husbands explained and honestly, Anathema had brought down more criminals than she had in her entire time at the DMLE. Her methods weren’t...the best, but it was what worked for her, Hermione always had been a bigger picture sort of woman. And the bigger picture here was she wanted to kiss off the neutral pink lipstick Anathema had gone with and then strip her dress off of her, preferably with Narcissa’s help.

“Ah, the seventh, he appeared your second year, convinced that he would be the one that I wouldn’t kill. He, of course, was very wrong. He didn’t fool me for a moment, oh he was charming, well-bred, the epitome of what a man should be, but after five husbands and numerous years, it’s rather easy to tell when a man is lying, especially after number five. Compared to him, this man had exactly no subtly. I don’t know why he thought he had any. He already had five ex-wives. No man with any subtly has that many ex-wives. I met all of them at one point or another, they all told me to run while the going was good. I just smiled and told them I had it handled. Which of course I did. Honestly, it took me three days of digging, just three, absolutely pathetic, to discover what he was doing to make his money off the backs of others. What he was doing was technically entirely legal. Well, at the time anyway. It has since been outlawed considering I took his money and poured it into legal advocacy groups. But he owned a construction company and anyone looking to remodel their home, or especially after natural disasters when people needed repair work, he would give them a low estimate, drag out the work, and then when they didn’t pay it would put a lien on their home. When the payments got to be too much, he would get the house, flip it, and sell it for a major profit. Honestly, I planned on killing him the second he brought us home from our honeymoon to one of these houses, telling me delightedly what he’d done. He laughed about kicking children out of their homes just because their parents trusted them. And I wasn’t about to stand for that, but considering he was my seventh husband to die, I wanted to be rather extra careful about everything so I took a bit of time planning everything. Ironically he was allergic to shellfish when he himself was rather shrimp-sized. It was easy enough to slip a bit of shrimp juice into a bloody mary and he drank it right up. I just had to wait a bit and then I rushed him to St. Mungos saying I’d tried everything but he wasn’t responding. They deemed it an accident on the spot, an unfortunate medical mishap, cross-contamination in the kitchens, he was careless about telling anyone he had any allergies after all. Then he was dead, his construction company sold off for parts, and the homes he’d taken given back to the rightful owners, and of course the bulk of his fortune went to making sure no one could follow in his footsteps.”

She shrugged and stood up, stretching a bit before smiling down at Hermione who had watched that move rather intently. Circe, the woman was fit, so many muscles rippling, and she was only a woman. How could she not stare?

Narcissa leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “I know the feeling, darling.” Before she pushed herself up too and walked over to grab the silver dress from the wrack and shoot a flirtatious glance at Hermione. “Do you think she should get a glance at what’s underneath now, or have to unwrap it herself, ‘thema?”

“Oh, definitely unwrap it herself, bella amore, goodness knows I like to open my presents myself after all. I imagine our cara is much the same.”

Narcissa slipped behind a silk changing screen. “You make a very good point.” There was the sound of rustling fabric then, “Darling, could you come zip me up?” 

Anathema smirked at Hermione before disappearing behind the screen. There was the soft sound of a zipper and then even softer sounds of kissing. That wasn’t fair. She wanted to watch them kiss. Or maybe she didn’t. Because she was fairly certain her underwear was already ruined and there was no need to make them any worse. The emerald dress disappeared behind the screen silently and the next second more resulting and the sound of another zipper. They both stepped out a minute later and smiled at Hermione.

“Well, darling, what do you think?” Narcissa asked, smoothing her hands down the silver fabric.

Hermione looked at them, Narcissa in silver, dress off the shoulder with a sweetheart neckline that gave her the most delicious view of the woman’s cleavage, tight through her hips before flowing down gracefully to the floor. Once she unzipped it, it would probably slip right off of her, and oh  _ Merlin, _ did she want to do that. Then there was Anathema, emerald green of the dress matching her eyeshadow perfectly, contrasting with her skin beautifully, saturated colors always did look so pretty on dark-skinned women, straps of the dress joining behind her neck with a sparkling clasp that matched the piece that Narcissa had given her to wrap around her bun, neckline plunging down, a bit more conservative than Narcissa's, but only just. It was mostly backless, showing off the smooth skin of her upper back, dress resuming again in the small of her back. It made Hermione want to touch her so badly she thought she might die.

“I don’t think I can actually think right now,” Hermione managed to say.

Both of the other women smirked at one another, success written in every line on their face. So this is what they’d been hoping to achieve huh. She pushed herself up and grabbed the last dress, slipping behind the screen with it. She would show them. She would make them speechless too, she was sure. She shed her robe, draping it over the screen and pulled on the dress, zipping it up on her own with a wandless bit of magic and then looked down. It was a fairly conservative sheath dress, in that it...technically covered everything, but there were some interesting mesh cutouts over her cleavage and sides, just enough temptation to be mouthwatering and classy. They’d somehow picked the perfect dress for her even if it was a bit more than she would’ve picked out for herself.

She stepped out from behind the screen and cocked an eyebrow. “And what do you think of your own handy work?”

They both stared for a long moment before stepped forward, pressing her between the two of them, and kissing her, Narcissa taking her lips, Anathema kissing her neck, and Hermione was absolutely overwhelmed in an instant. Oh fuck. Oh, good Godric. The women could kiss. Being sandwiched like this later, with all of them naked? It was going to end her and she would be thankful for it.

Narcissa pulled back after a minute, panting a bit, but lipstick untouched, she had to have used some magical fixing spell, but Hermione was still determined to kiss it off of her later. “We certainly approve, darling.” She swallowed hard and looked over Hermione’s shoulder. “And we’re right on time to leave.”

Hermione just nodded on autopilot. What else could she really do? Anathema hadn’t stepped away, still pressed against her, rocking her back and forth gently, lips still on her skin, but not moving anymore. “You didn’t run screaming, so I take this as an acceptance, cara?” She said, pulling back just enough to speak.

“It is. There isn’t much you could’ve said that would’ve changed my mind. I’d done my own research, I knew what sort of men they were, at least on the surface level. What you told me only proved that more.” She shrugged. “Our methods may not be the same but...as rich as they all were? Handling them my way would’ve gotten them a slap on the wrist and then right back to what they were doing.”

“You are sure?” She asked, voice a bit quiet.

She turned around in Anathema’s arms to face her, reaching up to cup the other woman’s face. “Anathema, listen to me. I am half an inch away from loving you fully, deeply, and completely. God knows by the time we all wake up tomorrow that distance may not exist at all. Are there things you shouldn’t tell me after this truth curse ends because of the conflict of interest with my job, yes, but I’ll never doubt your intentions, and those intentions are good, and to me that’s what really matters. You took down six criminals. Six. And their entire operations. That’s more than the DMLE has done this year taking down huge crime syndicates. And you’re one woman. You have all this power and will and you use it for a chaotic sort of good where no one who doesn’t deserve it honestly gets hurt. I can more than live with that knowledge the rest of our lives together. I can more than love you too.”

Anathema relaxed into Hermione’s touch. “I thought so, but I just…”

“You needed to be sure before it went any further, I understand. And if you ever need reassurance again, I will be more than happy to provide it for you, either of you.” She glanced over her shoulder at Narcissa. “Understood?”

Both of them nodded. 

“Good.” She let got of Anathema’s face and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “Now I’m starving and I have a feeling we’ll need the energy for tonight.”

Anathema’s smirk came right back. “So we will. I will make sure of it.”

Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Or perhaps I will, hmm?” She paused for a moment. “One question though, why did you stop at husband seven?”

Anathema tilted her head, acknowledging it as a fair question. “it was the beginning of your fourth year after number seven died and the rumors of Voldemort rising again were circulating. Everyone thought it was rubbish, but I wasn’t so sure. Things were happening in the underground circles, the ones my husbands unwittingly introduced me to in multiple different areas, and I could read between the lines. He was coming back, already starting to build a base even before he had a corporal body. It was already dangerous of course to do what I did, but it only would’ve gotten worse. To become wrapped up in that man’s network...I wouldn’t know it, most likely until too late if whatever man of the hour was, and drawing attention from a madman wouldn’t be good for Blaise or I, so I chose a different way of fighting the war. I went after the dark money, well, any money trail really, but the dark money that the Aurors would never find otherwise, and left seducing terrible men behind for the time. After the war, well, the world was different, brighter, and the old guard much more silent about their illicit activities, and after testifying I was a bit of persona non grata. So I kept in different lines of taking down people instead, I quite rather enjoy it, much more than having to sleep with some mediocre straight white man, though watching paint dry tops that, to be quite honest. And then it left me rather more time to spend with one particular witch who I loved deeply and truly throughout all the years, so it wasn’t a bad trade-off at all.” She smiled at Hermione. “Which in turn left me open to seduce you into our bed too. And I am looking forward to it, cara.”

Yup, if they were going to actually get out of this room, they had to go right now. “Dinner?” She squeaked.

Both Narcissa and Anathema laughed at her, but Anathema stepped back, not before taking her hand though. “Yes, dinner first of course. It’s what a lady such as yourself deserves.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the reviews guys! They're the Christmas presents that keep on giving lolol. Now have 3 idiots in love not knowing how to act at dinner to brighten your own holidays.

They walked into D’Oro, a very upscale Italian place which Hermione hadn’t even heard of before, it was far too out of her price range for a nice night out. She felt just a little bit out of place even being there, but then again, she was certainly dressed for it, and she was on the arm of two beautiful women who certainly belonged there, so it relaxed her a great deal.

Anathema shrugged as they entered. “I wouldn’t necessarily call it Italian, so much as inspired by Italy, but who wouldn’t be inspired by the greatest country in the world, no?”

Narcissa leaned in to whisper in Hermione’s ear. “Here she goes again with the ‘all real Italian food must taste like a Nonna spent hours making it’ speech.”

“How many times have you heard it over the years?” Hermione whispered back, stifling a giggle.

“I’ve certainly lost count. She has gone on and on recently about that bakery you brought us treats from, saying she must find it before next week. She eats sweets much like a dragon goes after meat the week before her period. Amaretti are her favorite of course.”

“I think I can be convinced to both show her where it is personally and bring her a box next week.”

“What exactly are you two whispering about, hmm, amori?”

Narcissa snorted. “I know well that you heard every single word. You have the ears of a bat when you want to, and I think now you would certainly want to since we were talking about you.”

“Fair enough, I suppose, you are right.” She looked at Hermione with wide eyes as they were escorted to their table without the hostess even having to ask who they were. Just how often did the two of them come here? “But please, cara? I would so love to know where they came from, perhaps talk to the owner. Maybe I could charm them out of the recipe even.” Her expression went a bit dreamy. “Oh, that would be wonderful.”

“You can try but they haven’t given anyone the recipe as far as I know. Everything is always ‘Nonna’s secret’ and then a wink.”

“You haven’t asked in Italian. You’ll see. Common language always softens someone up. It’s why I know twelve of them.”

Merlin the woman was a genius and Godric, did that turn her on. “Twelve huh?”

Anathema pulled out her seat for her and gestured for Hermione to sit. She did and then watched her do the same for Narcissa before taking her seat herself. “Yes, twelve. It’s easy enough to learn Spanish when you know Italian, the two are very related of course, then from there French is easy enough, of course, English, Russian I know from building my safe house there, both Mandarin and Cantonese, knowing both can get you out of fairly sticky situations, trust me, Arabic of course, German, Swedish because if you learn one Nordic language you can understand all of them fairly well, though Danish people sound much like they’re speaking through a bowl of mashed potatoes, I swear, Hindi, and Japanese. It covers nine of the most commonly spoken languages in the world and a scattering of ones I find useful for my own purposes.” She shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.

Hermione blinked. “I know three and I thought I was doing well with French and Spanish.”

“I know four, but being friends with her that didn’t seem to be quite the accomplishment,” Narcissa said, deadpan. “But good to know that all we’ll need to teach you is Italian and then we’ll all know at least the same four languages.” She flicked her fingers at Anathema. “Though if you want anything other than Italian, you’ll have to have her teach you.”

“I’m learning Swahili now actually. It will be good to know a language from all the continents.” Anathema smiled, eyes alight. “There are flavors of Arabic in it which make it easier to pick up for me since I already know the one, but the Bantu roots are noticeable as well and make it fascinating.”

Hermione felt the tug of the truth curse on her again and blurted out, “Oh Circe, you’re adorable I can’t even begin to stand it.”

Anathema’s gaze softened and she reached out to cup Hermione’s face. “So are you, amore. Though I can certainly begin to stand it. The only thing I couldn’t stand right now is losing either of you.”

“Then it’s a rather good thing you don’t have to,” Narcissa said, taking hold of Anathema’s other hand.

“And so it is.”

Hermione looked at the menu, which was all in Italian. She could pick out a word here and there considering it was very similar to Spanish, but not everything. She shut it and looked to Anathema. “What do I want to eat here? You did a good job picking out food the other day, and it does prevent you from having to explain every other thing on this menu to me to make sure I translated right.”

“I would do that for you in a heartbeat, cara, if you wanted, but…” she trailed off frowning, looking to Narcissa. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, bella amore?”

“Yes, I think she would like that.”

It really shouldn’t be this attractive for both of them to be so secretive in front of her, basically plotting against her. Well, if you could call scheming together for what to order for her dinner plotting against her anyway. It was still incredibly attractive. And if she thought about that energy directed at her in the bedroom she might just die.

“Good, good, are you trying anything new then? The new special looks something up your alley.”

“I was thinking about that, yes, but I do so love my regular dish.” Her eyes glanced to Hermione. “Though tonight is a night for new things, I think, so why not.” She closed her menu and looked back to Anathema. “Menu roulette for you?”

“You act as if it’s random.” She stuck out her tongue and Hermione had to look away because her thoughts were far too sinful to be believed. “I work my way down the menu in order. Life is to be savored, new things tried, go tos are for when you don’t have time. We have time tonight. All the time in the world, as far as I am concerned. I am exactly where I want to be.”

“Now I’m on the same train that Hermione is, you’re far too adorable for our own good, ‘thema.”

Hermione just nodded her agreement again. She wasn’t sure if actual words would come out of her mouth if she tried to speak or if it would just be gay babbling. Had she ever felt like this before? Even at the start of things when things were most intense? She didn’t think so.

“I’ve been far too adorable for at least six people’s good so far in this life, so this is only keeping with the trend.” Anathema’s smile had a wicked edge as the waiter showed up to take their order. She ordered for Hermione and both her and after looking at Narcissa with an arched brow, a bottle of wine for all of them to share. The waiter nodded and silently went off again into the restaurant leaving them alone once more.

Anathema sat forward, looking at Hermione now that the ordering had been dispensed with. “So, cara, over a year as head of your department and now cracking a case this big open, do you think you’ll get a promotion?”

Hermione blinked at that. She hadn’t actually thought about it, but considering the number of people that were cursed, and she was sure that more would come forward now that it was solved and the solution to the curse had been found. A lot of the people who’d been under the curse were still very influential people even after serving time for doing Voldemort’s bidding. The DMLE could promote her as a sign of good faith that they still took pureblood cases seriously in a world that turned up their nose at them largely now. Those in power didn’t, but oh the general masses, well. She’d heard Narcissa’s stories, had seen others play out herself.

“I really only focused on cracking the case so I could find who cursed both of you,” she admitted. “Everything else was so secondary it might as well not have existed.”

“Darling, that is horribly romantic,” Narcissa said. “Am I going to have two incurable romantics on my arm now?”

“Oh no, bella mia, whatever shall you do.” Anathema gripped her chest dramatically. 

“Oh hush, you.” She swatted Anathema’s arm lightly. “I’ll have you over here singing me sonnets in Italian and Hermione on the other side doing research to fix my every problem. How in the world am I supposed to compete with that?”

“Well, no one said it was a competition, but somehow I think you’ll find a way.” Hermione tilted her head. “It won’t be singing sonnets because that’s not your style, but it’ll be something quieter. Food on bad days and cuddling on a couch somewhere, quietly replacing things we need to make sure we always have enough, something like that. Am I right?”

Narcissa blinked a bit before nodding. 

“She has you already figured out amore.” Anathema snickered. “You are just as romantic as we are, just your gestures aren’t so grand, but smaller, more of them, and I’ve always loved you for them. Having a cup of my favorite tea ready when I get home on a rainy day...” She swallowed. “You’ve always been so warm. It always amazes me just how much you care for me in all those little gestures.” She lifted Narcissa’s hand to her mouth and kissed it.

“And I can’t wait to share all of that.” Nights in the library curled up and reading, a blanket coming to rest on her shoulders just as she realized she was cold, the perfect outfit put together for one of the hundred Ministry ass-kissing events she had to go to as head of a department of the DMLE, her conditioner never running out in the shower. Big things were wonderful and grand, of course, she would savor Anathema coming home with a dozen roses to give to her, the grand dinners out, the trips to exotic places, but the little things, oh they made her heart stop just as much.

“Oh what a sap you two will make me yet. And here I am, not minding one bit. Remember what I said about having a reputation to uphold? How exactly can I be a fierce Slytherin businesswoman when the two of you are my obvious weaknesses?”

“Somehow I think you’ll manage. Mostly by upholding said reputation by hexing whoever speaks a word against the two of us, bella amore.”

Narcissa considered that for a moment and nodded. “Fair enough I suppose.”

The sommelier came over with their bottle of wine, opening it quickly with precise movements and pouring Anathema a small amount. She took up the glass and swirled it around, looking at Hermione the entire time, taking in a slow breath and humming. It was totally unfair, really, what just a look and a hum could do to her. She took a sip of the wine, rolling it around in her mouth for a moment before swallowing and nodding to the man. He poured them all a glass before setting the bottle in the middle of the table, bowing shallowly and taking his leave.

“How’s work on your newest potion?” Hermione asked. “Last I heard Anathema had come up with the brilliant idea of inscribing runes on the bottles but the formulation work was still getting tweaked a bit.”

Narcissa lit up, as close to wiggling in her seat as a high society woman would ever get. “It’s done now, I believe. Everything is sourced as well and the price is reasonable, I believe, seven galleons a month. When the demand goes up it might get a bit cheaper than that, closer to six. Also, considering the time it takes to inscribe the runes, people who return the bottles to use via owl post or in stores will get a discount as well, that takes off another ten sickles.”

Hermione smiled at her. “That’s great! That’s a lot better than the usual stuff.” She’d seen the price tags at her favorite apothecary, and it wasn’t cheap, especially considering a daily dose was needed. Someone making base pay could never afford it. Brewing it at home was always an option, but even that didn’t save enough to make it really affordable. This would work better and cost a fourth as much. It would be wonderful for those who needed a little help to bring their brain back into a functional order.

“Oh yes, assuredly. Though I could’ve gotten the price down a bit more if not for the truth spell.” She frowned. “We absorbed most of the cost in the margins, of course, it’s not like we really need the money, but still, vendors and employees to pay, needs must and all that.” She tilted her head to the side. “We found the best supplier in England, perhaps after the curse is lifted we ought to look for someone in France with my full bargaining powers intact. It might come out cheaper in the long run even if there would be some associated costs with moving the supply so far. I would need to test the quality first though…”

Hermione reached out and took her hand. “I have no doubt that you’ll work to get the cost down even more when you can, but this is a remarkable first step, Narcissa. No one else had made a move in the mental health space in magic in literal decades.”

“I actually have an idea next for a calming draught that isn’t so intense, something that can be taken without the rather narcotic effects and therefore something more suited to more frequent use, perhaps daily if needed, but at least would allow the user to take it and continue functioning at a normal level for the rest of the day, just at a level of calm that allows them to get through the day before going home and either continuing to calm on their own in their own space or taking a stronger draught.”

Her eyes widened. Now that sounded like something she could have well used in the first couple years after the war. She’d toughed it out, had gone to therapy to learn coping mechanisms, but still it had been rough, that first year especially, but she hadn’t wanted to become dependant on a calming draught, and she had had things to do, and being too unfocused to work on them would’ve only caused her more stress in the long run. Merlin, every now and again now she could use something like that.

“Oh, that sounds wonderful. I could use something like that on big presentation days.”

That just set a determined look on Narcissa’s face and Circe, if that wasn’t so very, very attractive. “Well then, I’ll just have to make sure I develop it then, won’t I?”

“Now who’s the romantic one, bella amore?” Anathema asked, amusement sparkling in her eyes.

“Oh hush, as if you weren’t thinking the exact same thing. Actually, I know you were, so there’s no need to dramatically deny it.” Hermione got the distinct impression if Narcissa was anyone else she would be sticking out her tongue. Which if she did Anathema would definitely lean over to kiss her because that’s just the type of woman she was. And the type of woman Hermione was, would be too damned gay over that, so perhaps it was better that Narcissa was prim and proper. Though watching as she shed that primp and proper attitude tonight and screamed her name was going to be...intoxicating.

It really was a shame that these underwear were already certainly ruined. They had been very cute after all. Ah well, sacrifices must be made.

“I was not going to deny it. Or at least you didn’t give me the chance to. Now we’ll never know what I might have done. You wound me, bella, thinking I am just some sort of overdramatic Italian clown.”

Narcissa rolled her eyes. “Yes, it very much shows on your face, ‘thema.”

Anathema laughed at that. “So I’m sure it does.” She leaned forward a bit. “However, I can be as suitably dramatic as I want later and you’ll love it, won’t you, amore?”

Narcissa shivered, pupils dilating just slightly. “I suppose I might.”

“I certainly will,” Hermione couldn’t help but breathe out.

Both of their eyes turned back on her, Anathema smirking and Narcissa trying and failing to collect herself to do the same. Godric Gryffindor help her.

The Hogwarts founders didn’t help her, but the waiter did, coming back with an appetizer, placing down a plate of crostini with what looked like salami and figs on it with maybe ricotta? Definitely some sort of spreadable cheese. It looked delicious and her stomach growled. She hadn’t realized she was so hungry until that moment. She’d been well distracted with the two women sitting in front of her. Anathema picked up a piece of bread and took a bite sighing at the taste. Damn it, could she handle herself for one moment to at least get some food into herself? Nope probably not. She reached out rather blindly for the plate, eyes still on Anathema, and managed to find a piece and bring it to her own mouth. She bit down and the saltiness of the salami and the freshness of the fig went wonderfully together. She bit back a groan. This was far, far too good. She tried not to wolf the rest of it down in her haste to continue tasting such good food.

“Well, I think she likes your selection, ‘thema,” Narcissa said, slicing off a bit of the crostini with a knife and fork. She would be the one to eat finger food with cutlery. Hermione wondered if she did the same with pizza. She bit the inside of her lip at the absolutely adorable image that conjured in her mind.

“I do,” Hermione said, finishing off the last bite and sighing when it was gone.

“Good to know, cara.” Anathema reached out and swiped her thumb at the corner of Hermione’s mouth, pulling back with a bit of ricotta on her finger, licking it off with a smirk. “Tastes even better off of you, though.”

“Mmm, I bet,” Narcissa said, looking at Anathema with starving eyes.

“You two are really going to kill me, you know.” She looked at the fourth piece of crostini and swiped it before either of the others could. “My payment for this torture.”

Narcissa pouted. “I wasn’t the worst part of the torture. You could have split it with me.”

Hermione thought it over before putting the piece of bread down and cutting it in half and offering the other half to Narcissa. She was right. Anathema was the main cause of her heart attacks. The main one. Not to say Narcissa wasn’t trying her best to kill her, too, just, well, not as readily. And also her pout was adorable and she knew she was going to have the  _ hardest  _ time saying no to that in the future. Especially when Narcissa perked up when Hermione handed her half and smiled brightly. Merlin it was going to be hilariously easy to fall in love with these two. If she hadn’t already. Which she was certainly going to put to the back of her mind for now because this was quite literally the first date.

“Thank you, darling.” She put it down on her plate and neatly went to slicing it into pieces, cutting it so a bit of everything was in each bite.

“I can’t resist her pout either, cara,” Anathema said with a smile.

“How could you, I am adorable,” Narcissa said deadpan, popping a bite of crostini in her mouth.

“She’s not wrong there,” Hermione said shrugging.

“She’s not,” Anathema stage whispered to her, “but let's not tell her or else she’ll get a big head about it.”

“As if you don’t know that you’re the most beautiful witch in all of the U.K.”

“I mean so the magazines tell me, but it is most important that two particular witches see me as the most beautiful witch, so.” Anathema smiled slyly at them both.

Narcissa turned to Hermione. “Fishing for compliments, as always. At least you’ll bring a different dynamic into the mix, darling.”

Hermione snickered at Anathema’s offended look. She didn’t miss Anathema’s hand reaching out to squeeze Narcissa’s leg under the table. These two. Then Anathema’s other hand was on her thigh, creeping dangerously higher every second. Oh, Morgana, she was not prepared for this.

“She certainly will,” Anathema purred.

“Hmm, well, you certainly look like you might kill her before we get to find out. Maybe you need a taste of your own medicine.” 

Hermione felt Narcissa’s leg moving under the table. It brushed past hers to reach for Anathema’s. She felt the light thunk of a heel hitting the floor before Narcissa’s leg was moving up and down gently, just brushing against Hermione’s knees every now and again, working a bit higher every time. Hermione had no real clue what Narcissa was doing under there, but in her imagination, that foot was up to a bit more than just a little bit of stroking.

“Bella, fuck,” Anathema whispered, which confirmed all of Hermione’s wildest thoughts and oh god. Anathema’s hand had stopped its upward climb, which did relieve some of her tension, but it probably didn’t relieve enough to compensate for exactly what she felt watching Anathema’s head tilt forward and her eyes closing as she tried to control her breathing. It definitely was a taste of her own medicine. That’s about all she could say.

Narcissa smirked as she lowered her leg, wiggled a bit as she slipped back into her heel, and pulled her leg back. “Will you behave a bit more, ‘thema, dear?”

“Absolutely not if it gets me such treatment.”

Hermione groaned, not surprised in the slightest. Of course not. She needed a safer conversation topic, something that would distract Anathema, give her a bit of peace to recover from what had just happened. “How is Blaise doing?” She asked, hoping the subject change didn’t seem too obvious. “You two had lunch recently, yes?”

Anathema looked at her, smiling crinkling the corners of her eyes, a knowing look on her face even as she responded. “He’s doing well. He started at a new company last month and they’re already talking of giving him a raise. He does such fine work, my tesorino.” Her eyes took on a rather devilish glint. “We’re still under the truth spell, so may I tell you our latest plot, cara? It isn’t something truly illegal, just...ill-advised.”

“Like overthrowing a small nation’s government,” Hermione said, cocking an eyebrow.

“Well, he was a tyrant, and the elections they held last year have gone well, the new government seems to be stable and they’re enacting some real changes that are helping the people.” She blinked. “That’s not the point right now, but a little less dramatic than that, cara.”

“Alright, but if I get promoted from this case, you can’t tell me any more of your and Blaise’s shenanigans until I switch careers, no matter if they’re borderline legal or not.”

“Fair enough.” She glanced to Narcissa. “Two years from now, do you think.”

Narcissa nodded. “Long enough no one will think that she used this case as a jumping-off point, but short enough that most people will still remember the wonderful job she did on the case, yes. Whose seat do you think?”

“It would be easy to take one of the seats under Cassilda Selwyn, I think. No one much likes her vassals, but no one runs against them either. She’s also one of the very that have been very prodigious in squashing down challengers to the old ways.”

Hermione blinked. She honestly hadn’t thought that far ahead other than the changes immediately after the war meant that she could run for a seat held in a fair election and win. Not that she didn’t already technically have one as an Order of Merlin, First Class recipient, but she wanted to come in under the new, fairer way of representation. It was what she would be fighting for after all. It would mean she’d had to run for one of the seats now that had previously been under control of a House, but she’d always just thought she’d run for one that had traditionally been under Potter control. But this…

“I’d be making an enemy right off the bat,” Hermione said, sitting forward. “But it might be a good one to make.”

Narcissa nodded. “Exactly. It places you exactly where you would want to be, a woman for change, not taking the easy way out, because Cassilda certainly won’t make it easy. Though it will be rather hilarious to watch her try and run a smear campaign against the Golden Girl.”

“I’d like to see her try.” Anathema’s smile had teeth and Hermione had an impression that the second the woman said a bad word against her, every skeleton in her closet would be outed.

“She would, but she won’t have as much support considering Hermione will have helped a great many of the pureblood ranks with this case.”

“Yes, cara, they’ll see your taking a seat as taking what you’ve been owed for breaking the curse and jailing Diggory. It’s rather brilliant.” She looked at Narcissa. “I do so love when you get political, bella mia.”

“I feel much the same way about you.” They gazed at each other for a long, loving moment before they both shook themselves just a bit to snap out of it. “Anyway, two years will be perfect, will allow you to affect meaningful change wherever they put you as well, so you’ll have a bigger platform to run on, though your changes with the Spelled Assault department have been very meaningful, more never hurt.”

“You both sound certain that they will now and twenty minutes ago you were asking me if I thought I would get promoted.” She tilted her head.

“Oh that was before we thought the reasoning through, cara,” Anathema said. “Now that we have it’s almost an absolute certainty. I’ll storm the bastion if I have to. You obviously deserve it.”

“I mean it’s only been a bit over a year since I took over.”

“In a department under what you’re capable of, darling.”

Hermione felt herself blushing in a very different way than she had been all night. She looked at the tablecloth. She knew she’d done well. She knew the Spelled Assault Department was small potatoes compared to some. But to have it pointed out like this, that she deserved more, which she did know, of course, she knew her worth, well, it was rather lovely.

“Well then, two years and you and Blaise can tell me all about whatever schemes you come up with after I remove the spell later tonight.” She managed to glance up and look at both Anathema and Narcissa, cheeks still flaming.

“Wonderful!” Anathema clapped happily before leaning forward. “Now, this latest project we have, it’s honestly a bit fun, though anyone outside of this table might think I’m a little bit crazy for thinking so.”

“Anyone outside of this table might think you’re insane without knowing about your latest scheme,” Narcissa deadpanned.

Her eyes landed on the blonde, narrowed for a moment before she smirked and flicked her fingers and Narcissa’s eyes widened and she bit her lip hard enough that even under her lipstick Hermione could see it turn white. She let out a slow breath and shivered visibly.

“What did you cast on her?” Hermione asked, curious because Narcissa didn’t look to be in pain or distress, but something was clearly going on.

“An old family spell. I’ll use it on you later, cara, you’ll enjoy it, but you’d be rather vocal the first time, I expect. There are things that Italians do with magic better than anyone else.”

“I’ll behave,” Narcissa managed to gasp out quietly, face starting to flush.

“Are you sure, bella amore? The magic tells me you’re so very close already. I could take the edge off.”

Narcissa shook her head quickly and Anathema waved her fingers again the next moment. The blonde witch relaxed back into her chair, absolutely boneless. “Too worked up not to scream if you did,” she elaborated.

“A stimulation spell? Can I learn it or is it blood magic?” Because if she could learn it? Oh, she would very much like to. If she couldn’t...well, she would just have to figure out something that would work in a similar manner.

“Blood magic, unfortunately.” The corners of her mouth started to twitch up, though. “However, the spell recognizes a magical bond to family as well as blood, so all you would have to do is marry Narcissa and I and then you could learn.”

Hermione blinked for half a second before, “I suppose I might just have to then, won’t I?” Sitting with that for a long second she didn’t feel any twinge of panic that it might be too soon to consider such things. It was in a very serious manner, but joking like this? It was fine, and she found that she meant it anyway. Screw the horse and cart, she was just going to let this unfold as it was, it was already going so well anyway, why worry?

“You realize the second you teach it to us you will know no peace, yes?” Narcissa asked, starting to gain back some of her structural integrity.

“Oh, I count on it, amori, I count on it. One must practice after all to make sure you’ve mastered the spell.” She turned back to Hermione. “Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” she huffed out rather dramatically. 

Hermione almost snickered at her but decided that might not be in her best interest at the moment. Anathema was right, if she got hit by any sexual stimulation spell right now, she would scream, and maybe instantly come, she wasn’t really sure.

“The plot that Blaise and I have going is rather simple in set up, really, just difficult in execution, and that’s what makes it rather fun. Instead of tracking down criminal enterprises, we’ve set ourselves up as fixers and they come to us. We of course do set them up with people that will fix their problem, but that isn’t all in the slightest. We’ve been documenting everything, have a few loyal groups now, and are building up evidence to send their entire organizations away, and none of it will ever be traced back to us. Collecting said evidence while they’re watching is always difficult, what with their paranoia and scanning for surveillance spells, but I’ve come up with a few of my own that are undetectable. None of them suspect a thing from me anyway, were they to find them. I always come to them with the reputation of a black widow, I would never go to law enforcement, would I?” She cackled quietly. “If they only knew that I was going to have a department head in my bed in a few hours.”

Hermione put the dots together quickly. “The legality is grey at best, but considering you’re actually helping to perpetrate illegal actions, that’s where it would get messy for me to know any goings-on since I would have to report everything, even the smallest crime.”

Anathema nodded. “But of course that wouldn’t really gain much. The petty crimes they come to me with at first while establishing trust would get a local low-level man arrested, nothing deleterious to their organization. Working with them, figuring out all of their crimes, gathering the evidence, I bide my time, much like an undercover agent, I suppose, but with..much more flair for the job, and much more flexible morals.” She shrugged. “Soon enough I’ll have enough to bring down the Tilliani family. Things have been progressing through Blaise while I’ve been indisposed.”

Hermione’s eyes widened. They were one of the worst magically based crime families in the world. They’d spread everywhere, had a piece of every sketchy business, they were more an empire than a family at this point. To take them down would be absolutely insane, crime rates would drop in the double digits in some places just from having them gone.

“Merlin” Hermione breathed. 

Anathema preened. “I know! And there are a few more behind that that I believe we can take down before we’ll need to find another approach for groups who handle everything in house. A year or two more perhaps, before that happens though. I already have some ideas though for a next scheme…”

Their waiter approached, carrying a large tray of food and Hermione sat up, both hungry and also ready to progress through the night so she could stop ruining her panties and start getting some relief. Not that hse wasn’t having an absolutely wonderful time, this was the best date she’d had in...ever, but well, Gryffindor impatience was Gryffindor impatience and Anathema’s spell on Narcissa had decidedly  _ not  _ helped her try to stay in this moment. The man placed their food down expertly, refilled their wine and water glasses, and then disappeared back into the restaurant. She looked down at her plate, inhaling and moaning at how good it smelled.

“What is this?” Hermione asked, already picking up her fork before Anathema could answer.

“Cappelletti with pheasant, Raschera cheese cream, and foam of dried mushrooms.” The older witch said, looking at Hermione with open anticipation. 

Hermione didn’t disappoint. She cut a delicate bite despite the fact that the smell alone made her want to dive face-first into the dish, and placed it into her mouth. She sighed dreamily. Oh, it was heartbreakingly good, earthy and bright, creamy and smooth, she could have this a hundred times and never get tired of it.

“Good, cara mia?” Anathema said, laughter in her voice.

“I think you know it is,” Hermione shot right back before taking another bite. “What did you two get?” Because she was genuinely curious. And also if she was going to be their girlfriend that meant that she could steal a bite right? That’s totally what it meant.

“Ravioli with lobster, foie gras, potatoes, and saffron,” Narcissa said, taking her own bite and sighing. “I went with my usual since I was planning on distracting you to steal a bite of yours and I’ve never tried it before, so I figured that was enough new things for the night. Also, they have a new dessert that I want to try as well.”

Hermione snickered as the older witch’s face scrunched. She hadn’t meant to admit her little plan, but that worked out in her favor anyway. “Well, I was planning on stealing a bite of yours, so I propose we don’t steal, but a fair trade.” She scooped up a bite and held it towards Narcissa.

Narcissa’s eyes sparked, lightening to a cornflower blue as she leaned forward and carefully took the bite from Hermione’s fork, letting Hermione feed her, looking at her the entire time, humming as she chewed. “Oh, that is wonderful. Perhaps I’ll have to order that for myself in the future.” She sat back with a smirk.

Yeah. Ok then. She knew exactly what she was doing to Hermione. It was fine. She wasn’t imagining feeding Narcissa strawberries in bed now or anything. It was fine. Totally. Except when Narcissa held out her own fork to Hermione she just stared at it dumbly for a very long moment before she actually came back to herself enough to sit forward and take the bite in her mouth. And oh Merlin, everything at this restaurant was absolutely delicious. And Narcissa had something about dessert? Oh, she definitely needed that, even if it might delay other sweeter activities. More carbs would mean more fuel for that anyway. 

“Wow,” she finally managed to say.

“Wow, indeed,” Narcissa said, eyes a bit more dilated than they had been a moment before. Yeah, she definitely needed to look away. Totally fine, mhm yup. She crossed her legs under the table to help her out, at least a little bit. It didn’t actually do much for her, but at least she tried.

She looked to Anathema for a distraction, but really could she count on Anathema for that? Probably not, but she did have a dish that Hermione hadn’t tried so that would be at least something of a distraction. “And what do you have, ‘thema?” she asked. She paused at the nickname slipping out, but it felt right.

Anathema’s smile was soft as she answered, “Leg and rack of goat with artichokes. I take it you would like a taste.”

“It’s a girlfriend right, yes?” 

She laughed. “I suppose it is.”

“Certainly steal food from her all the time.”

“I do return the favor. Equal opportunity theft really. Sometimes what she has tastes better even if we have the same thing.” She winked at Narcissa.

“Theft makes most things sweeter.”

Hermione had the fleeting thought that maybe she’d wake up one morning to find all her underwear stolen. No doubt it would be on the day of some important meeting too, and the two of them would spend the morning working her up, sending her out a wet mess into the world, hoping no one would notice the fact that she wasn’t wearing panties while she tried desperately not to drip down her thighs thinking of what the two of them would do to her once she got home. Maybe theft did make things sweeter. It certainly at least would prevent an innocent pair of underwear from being ruined if nothing else.

Narcissa smirked at her and winked, catching her eyes for long enough that she must’ve caught the passing thoughts. Hermione wasn’t exactly doing anything to quiet them. If anything her brain was probably shouting said thoughts into the void. If she couldn’t scream to the rafters literally, something had to do the shouting for her, or she might actually explode. It wasn’t like she really minded Narcissa knowing anyway.

Anathema held out her own bite to Hermione. “Same deal then, a bite of mine for yours? Not quite so exciting as trying to outwit you for a bite, but it is a first date so I suppose the warfare can come later.”

She laughed as she sat forward and took the bite from Anathema’s fork. And really, after a third dish being so good, she was convinced that there was some culinary god back in the kitchen, that were she actually inclined towards it, she might hug them for their genius. No wonder Anathema and Narcissa came here often enough to have favorite dishes.

“I would sell my soul to eat this on a regular basis,” Hermione said, words slipping out before she had a chance to catch herself. She really would be glad when this truth curse was gone, then maybe she could keep her more embarrassing random thoughts to herself.

“Well, you needn’t sell your soul…” Narcissa trailed off.

“Perhaps your body though, much more useful to us,” Anathema finished.

Hermione focused down on her plate to stop the blush now blooming on her face at that thought. She cut off a bite for Anathema and held it out to her.

“Aww, cara, has the cat gotten your tongue.” She leaned forward and took the bite, lingering for a long moment before pulling back and chewing.

“Well, I do plan on having my tongue somewhere near some sort of cat this evening,” Hermione managed to fire back.

“Or two?” Narcissa asked with a smirk before going back to her own food, slicing off another delicate bite before arching an eyebrow at Hermione’s continued silence.

“Definitely two.” The words were certainly choked, but all that mattered was that she’d managed to speak at all. She counted it as a win. It was honestly getting worse as dinner went on. The only thing really keeping her speaking now was the truth spell and her own truly Gryffindor need to not be outdone.

“I have similar plans,” Anathema said, calmly, as if they weren’t talking about eating the others out.

Hermione groaned. “Just tell me does the absolute desperation I feel right now ever get better? I mean you both waited decades to be together, surely that had to be worse.” She fanned herself dramatically. What was that muggle song she’d heard on the radio the other day? It’s getting hot in here, or something to that degree? It wasn’t wrong.

Anathema and Narcissa looked at each other, smirking those damnably hot smirks. “No, certainly not if we have anything to say on the matter, darling.”

“I certainly try to make our bella amore desperate for me on a daily basis in one way or another and I rather never plan on stopping. The same will certainly be said for you as well.”

She sighed. “I didn't really think it would get better anyway, not with how mind-blowingly attractive you both are, with how intelligent, how good you are, in your own very Slytherin ways of course, I know you have reputations to uphold and all that.” She smiled at them softly. “Truth of the matter is I really don’t want it to stop, but the embarrassment of squirming in my seat from wanting you both so much is certainly about to happen, and while I know you’ll absolutely _love_ __ that, it’s certainly not what I want other people to see. I’m only yours.”

“‘Thema, I think you might have competition for the most romantic in the relationship,” Narcissa said softly. She placed down her silverware gently and reached out for Hermione’s hand. “Oh, darling, if we are good, what in the world are you? You light up a room just by entering it. In thirty years this curse will be a rather funny inconvenience and at most we will remember it for bringing us you. Where would we be without you? Whatever you feel, know that we mirror it back wholly and completely, never doubt this.”

Hermione squeezed her hand. “I never have, not really even from the start, if I look back on it. Even before Anathema was cursed it felt...I’m not sure. There wasn’t permission, but it felt like there was?”

“As if it was meant to be,” Anathema said, simply.

She thought that over for a few seconds before nodding. “Yes, something like that, I think.” It had always felt right, from that first moment with Narcissa in her office until now. She hadn’t really been able to put a finger on it then, but she certainly could now. She brought Narcissa’s hand to her lips and kissed it before letting it go so she could go back to her meal.

“Good, for us as well, cara. You just...fit. Even at the beginning of our finally ever after. It was meant to be and so it was, and here we are.” Anathema glanced at Narcissa. “Though I resent that I have someone after my crown for most romantic. Will I have to write another book of poetry for you, bella mia?”

Hermione’s heart melted at that. “You wrote her an entire book of poems?”

Anathema blushed and looked away, finally for once a bit bashful. “Well, it was over the last...forever really. When this all started I just went back and found everything I had and edited them and then bound them into a book and gave them to her on our one month anniversary. A tiny anniversary really, but after everything, it deserved a marking.”

“That is absolutely the sweetest and most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.” Hermione sighed dreamily.

“I already have ideas for things we’ll do to celebrate one month of officially having you.” Anathema’s gaze found its way back to Hermione, certain and steady now.

“You certainly have a head start on me then.” Not that she didn’t have a few ideas rumbling around anyway. After getting to know the women it was hard not to have some ideas. She’d always been the type of person for little gifts and acts of service as a love language, for friends and otherwise. She was always on the lookout for ideas, and now with these two? It felt like that had magnified ten-fold.

“You’re clever, I have all faith in you,” Anathema said before popping a bite of goat into her mouth and smirking once more.

“You Slytherins and smirking, I swear,” she huffed before going back to her own meal. It would be a shame to eat something this gorgeous cold after all. 

“Is this where I opine about you Gryffindors and your righteous speeches?” Narcissa asked, tone level.

“It could be if you wanted it to.” She ate another bite and sighed. This really had been the perfect night so far, the food, the company, everything.

“I think you should save such things for when she’s actually making a righteous speech, amore. She’s sure to do so eventually.”

“I resent that. I mean it will probably happen, but I resent it.” She stuck out her tongue at them for a moment before taking a sip of wine, aware that she certainly had two interested sets of eyes on her.

“Who said we didn’t resent the comment about smirking?” Anathema asked, her lips valiantly trying not to do the thing she just mentioned.

“Because in half a second you’re going to smirk?”

Anathema tilted her head in acknowledgment of the point but took a sip of her own wine instead of verbally answering. She swirled it around in her glass for a moment, looking at Hermione thoughtfully. “I do wonder what you would’ve been like if you hadn’t been in Gryffindor. Just how much more bookish would you be if you’d been sorted into Ravenclaw, perhaps.”

Hermione honestly thought about it for a moment. “I wasn’t exactly a hat stall, but he took his time with me, a couple minutes, longer than most everyone in my year but I think Harry.” She looked directly at Narcissa. “Draco did tell you that the hat didn’t even touch him before sorting him into Slytherin yes?”

She laughed and nodded. “His letter after that was rather proud. As a mother, I really had no doubt where he would end up. Lucius, however, was much harsher about the fact that he shouldn’t be sorted anywhere else.” She rolled her eyes. “Men. His rant on how many generations of Malfoys had been Slytherins was...tedious to be sure.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised.” She swiped out her fork and stole another bite from Narcissa’s plate, not defending her own plate when the woman knicked a bite from her in return. “I know you were friends enough to marry him but.” She scrunched her nose.

“Believe me, over twenty years was long enough to see his flaws, especially after the last war. When his sentence ends next year, I don’t particularly believe I’ll ever be as close to him as I once was. He put Draco in far too much danger for that.”

“I can’t say I mind, bella mia,” Anathema said, holding her wine glass up as if she was toasting. “After all, the man kept you away from me for so long.”

“I have a feeling you’re where the howlers he’s been getting for years have come from, aren’t you?”

“I’m the one paying for them, not the one sending them, however. It would be too obvious it was my voice. The accent is a bit distinctive after all.”

Narcissa laughed again. “Fair enough. His letters about them amuse me, so well worth the price.”

Hermione frowned at her plate seeing that it was mostly gone now. But that meant dessert, and that most likely meant chocolate, and she could certainly go for some of that right about now. She was sure Narcissa had something good picked out for that particular craving.

“The real question is, what would Narcissa be like if she’d been sorted into Ravenclaw.” She glanced at Anathema. “Or you too, really. You’re both brilliant witches, after all.”

Anathema and Narcissa looked at each other, considering. “I think we would’ve rather been a terror in Ravenclaw. The same drive that made us Slytherins through and through would’ve still been there, certainly, just perhaps a bit more directed towards learning whatever we wanted.”

“At whatever cost,” Anathema added to Narcissa’s statement. “Surely, cara, you knew a few Ravenclaws that took things a bit too far in their pursuit of finding things out for themselves?”

Hermione hummed. She’d heard stories. Gryffindor had always had potions with Slytherin, at least until the classes blended together after O.W.L.s, but she’d heard stories that the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff section had rather a higher tendency to explode, and that was with Neville taken into account. From the stories, it was almost always a Ravenclaw being blown up too for “well I wanted to know what would happen if I did it this way” reasons.

“I did, though honestly not as surprising as those Ravenclaws who were technically brilliant, but put little effort in to class and instead went off on their own rather complicated side projects and learnings about the oddest things. I’ve always been more concerned with knowledge I can actually use than something off the wall.” She shrugged. Luna had been her introduction to that, really, with her obsession with mostly imaginary creatures, though Luna herself still managed to skate by in classes as well, others he’d met in passing hadn’t done the same.

Narcissa shook her head. “We wouldn’t have been those sorts, to go off learning about potion techniques of the 1300s, we would’ve been rather...less judicious in our application of any and all knowledge we would’ve learned.”

Hermione had an instant flash of a much smarter Fred and George Weasley and, “Oh Merlin, you would’ve been terrors, you’re right. I would have just been more of a nerd than I already am, but you two, the thirst for knowledge and the drive to do whatever it took to get there? The school wouldn’t have been standing for me to attend, I don’t believe.”

“You’re probably right,” Anathema polished off her glass of wine but didn’t refill it. She cocked an eyebrow at Hermione watching her actions, and she got the distinct impression that Anathema wasn’t drinking more because she wanted to be clear-headed for later. She resisted fanning herself and finished off her own glass of wine and looked at the bottle. There was probably another glass in there, which she could split with Narcissa if she wanted and still be sober enough to remember every single detail but slightly loosened up so she couldn’t get too in her own head about it. Yes. That would do.

“Split the last glass with me, Narcissa?” she asked the woman.

“Trying to get me tipsy, Hermione?” But she nodded with a smile on her face.

Hermione picked up the bottle and poured them each half a glass. “No, even if you’d only weigh fifty-five kilos soaking wet, you’re tall enough to handle a glass and a half of wine with dinner.” She tilted her head. “Besides, you want to remember tonight just as much as Anathema. Just as much as I do.”

“Now that you certainly have right.” She lifted her glass and tilted it towards Hermione before taking a slow sip.

“Circe, I’m so glad you two get to stop tormenting me tonight and actually do something about it because I might actually die otherwise, I swear.” She sighed. The more embarrassed she was tonight the less control she seemed to have on the spell. The first thing she was going to do when she got the chance in the morning was break the spell on all of them. Not that the two in front of her wouldn’t be able to tell what she was thinking by her blush. Or in Narcissa’s case by her mind screaming at the top of its little lungs about whatever dirty fantasy she had, but still. It was the principle even if she didn’t mind either of them knowing.

“That you also have right, cara,” Anathema said, popping the last bite of her meal into her mouth and putting down her silverware exactly in the right configuration to indicate she was done with her meal. “Now, bella, what did you have planned for dessert, I’m sure it’s sinful as usual.”

Narcissa lit up. “The new dessert is chocolate ganache and Campari sorbet.”

“Sign me up please,” Hermione said. Chocolate ganache sounded wonderful right now. She finished her own last bite and kept from sighing at the sight of her empty plate only because that meant that probably the best chocolate ganache she’d ever tasted would be in front of her soon.

“Yes, that does sound nice. I do love Campari, especially tasting off of a lover’s skin. It always goes well. It must be because it’s Italian.” 

Narcissa looked skeptical and Hermione just snorted, having no problems appearing unladylike in public. 

“Or, darling, and I do say this with all the love in the world, because some of us are perpetually turned on and any excuse to do what essentially amounts to a body shot off of your lover would taste lovely to you, no matter what the liquor was.” Narcissa’s eyes darkened. “I do recall a bottle of rather mediocre wine that somehow was used up in such a manner though we both rather hated it.”

Anathema’s mouth snapped closed rather quickly as her eyes glazed over in remembrance. She spaced out for a few moments before, “Perhaps you have a point, amore. I do, however, stand by my point that Campari is good because it is Italian. No other countries could’ve come up with something so beautiful in its bitterness.”

Hermione looked at Narcissa and they both snickered quietly. “I think she might have rose-colored glasses about Italy, don’t you?” she asked the blonde witch.

“Perhaps she might, but it’s part of her charm. Wait until she takes you around Italy, you do begin to see things her way, at least in part.”

“Name me something that the U.K. has done in the food world worth the time? I will wait, amori.” Anathema was certainly pouting and Hermione couldn’t resist grabbing her hand up and kissing it gently.

“I am rather fond of fish and chips,” she said, still lingering over soft skin. Gods, these fingers would be in her later. She squirmed just a little bit at the thought.

“Yes because white people invented fried food, I’m sure,” she said deadpan.

Hermione tilted her head in acknowledgment. “You have a point there, but it is the stereotypical British dish, and a great deal better than trying to claim we gave the world curry.” She shivered. She’d actually seen someone have that opinion. It was, to say the least, a bad take on things.

“I will concede that point I suppose, but only just.” She squeezed Hermione’s hand. 

“If we’re talking the British Isles as a whole, you could always say haggis.” Narcissa’s face was mischievous.

Both Anathema and Hermione scrunched up their faces. “The Scots can have that,” Anathema said at the same time that Hermione said, “No thank you, but to each their own, I guess?”

The waiter stopped by again to ask their dessert order before Narcissa could taunt them anymore about haggis. Hermione really didn’t need to think more about a boiled sheep's stomach after such a delicious meal anyway.

“I must confess, Hermione, before you snatch us up at the end of the meal, I perhaps foolishly did have another stop planned for us since ‘thema got to pick the restaurant.”

Anathema waggled a finger at Narcissa. “Only because I gave you the idea.”

“And you were entirely not serious. What did you say exactly?” She put on a purposely bad Italian accent, “Bella amore, dinner will be enough, she will feel much more wooed if we take her directly home afterward and she is dessert. It isn’t like there is anything more romantic for our cara unless we wanted to take her to a bookstore, but alas, those shops will be closed and we can just continue home. What a shame.” She fake pouted for a second before her face morphed back into a haughty smirk.

Hermione felt herself perking up despite herself. That sounded like they were going to a bookstore, and as much as she  _ desperately  _ wanted to go home with them, well, some things would never really change. She’d always be a bookworm who loved books a bit too much for her own good.

“Where are you taking me after this?” Hermione asked, trying to keep the excitement out of her voice for now.

Narcissa threw another superior look at her girlfriend before turning back to Hermione. “You’re familiar with the largest wizarding bookshop in the world, yes?”

Hermione nodded enthusiastically. She’d dreamed of going there but knew if she made a special trip she’d want a few days off to explore and just hadn’t taken the time yet. That, and it was in Amsterdam and she’d want some time to explore that city too since she’d never been there even before she’d found out it housed the largest wizarding book shop.

“Well, with the right connections you can rent it out for a night, mostly for sleepovers and such, however, I thought you’d like to roam the stacks for a bit and find an absolutely ridiculous amount of books you’d enjoy. The tab has already been taken care of, of course.”

Hermione’s brain short-circuited. She could buy? All the books? She wanted? In the world's? Largest? Book shop? Oh dear Merlin, she loved these two witches more than she could put into words.

“I’ve never been more attracted to anyone in my life than I am to the two of your right now,” Hermione squeaked out, still trying to wrap her head around it.

Anathema put a piece of sea glass the color of Narcissa’s eyes on the table. “And after half a moment to think after my rather off the cuff thoughts, that’s why I arranged the portkey with no fuss.” She looked to Narcissa, amusement clear on her face. “Have you ever seen her so excited, bella amore?”

“I don’t think I have.”

She was well aware that they were gently teasing her because of her great amount of excitement, but she didn’t care. Circe, Morgana, and Nimue, when she was done looking at books she was going to make both of them come so many times in gratitude they wouldn’t walk straight for a week. Which that thought only turned her on more, the thought of them being so affected by her. Hmm, well, that was a rather new thought to her, but she didn’t mind. She shivered at the thought of leaving hickeys all over the both of them. Definitely was going to have to do some thinking about that later, mhm, yup, she’d never been much into marking her partners before, but something inside her just  _ wanted _ to make sure that people knew that these two witches were hers.

Anathema looked back at her, eyes heated. “Though the more time you spend in the stacks is less time for us to ravish you, so it will indeed be about balance, yes cara?”

“Yes, Anathema.” She laughed softly. “Honestly clever planning really, dangling that over my head. It’s the only way you’ll get me out of there in a timely fashion.” Because at some point even her love of books wasn’t going to be enough to override her need for the two witches in front of her. And she had more than a bit of a feeling they weren’t going to make it easy on her to begin with. Though, considering who they were as well as who she was, she had a feeling that at least for a time there would be an adorable flurry of them running back and forth with exciting books they’d found and wanted to show the others. She had to close her eyes from just how much her heart clenched at the image.

“Well, it’s easy enough to make a day of it to lose ourselves in the stacks later. This is a portkey authorized for multiple uses after all.”

Narcissa raised an eyebrow about that, she obviously hadn’t requested it, but there was more than a bit of a spark in her eye that said she was excited about it too. “Merlin, just when I think I can’t love you anymore.”

Anathema laughed. “Between the two of you we’re going to have to add more stacks to Black Manor’s library, aren’t we?”

“I think the three of us is more like it. Don’t pretend you don’t love a good book as well, darling.”

She shrugged one smooth-skinned shoulder. “I do, but you two take the cake, as I believe the saying goes.”

The waiter showed up with their desserts, putting them down in front of them, and Hermione had a bite in her mouth the next second. Godric, it was just as good as everything else had been, the orange notes of the Campari playing with the earthy richness of the chocolate ganache, it was heaven. Both the combination of how good the dish was and the lure of books had her well...she didn’t quite savor it as she had the first two courses. She was more than sure now that they’d been here again and she could take her time next time when she wasn’t both chomping at the bit to be lost among books and absolutely dripping with arousal.

Narcissa was finished almost as fast as she was, sitting back with an angelic smile on her face. “Good chocolate is always something to smile about,” she said when she caught Hermione looking.

“She wears the same smile after a good orgasm if you were wondering,” Anathema said in a conspiratorial whisper.

“I wasn’t but now I certainly am.” She groaned and resisted the urge to put her head down on the table. If they were anywhere other than an upscale restaurant she would’ve anyway.

“Good.” Anathema gestured for the check and in a second she had it, tapping her wand against it to authorize the transfer of money from Gringotts before handing it back. The waiter nodded his thanks and walked off. “Now, I believe we do have a date with some books, yes?”

Hermione stood immediately and offered her hand to the older witch with a smile. Anathema took it before helping up Narcissa. She picked up the portkey from the tablecloth and pocketed it, though where her dress had pockets, Hermione wasn’t exactly sure. Magic could do many things, really, so they were probably somewhere. She’d have to investigate closely later.

She offered one arm to Hermione and one to Narcissa before leading them out of the restaurant and onto the street. She tapped the blue glass once and it lit up a bright turquoise of the Mediterranean on a beautiful summer day. She offered it towards her loves. Hermione placed a finger on it and sighed. Portkeys weren’t the worst travel ever, but they weren’t the best either. She’d take them over a broom, but not by much, really. Narcissa’s finger brushed against hers, which Hermione hadn’t known there was a way to be seduced just by a slip of a finger, but the blonde witch had found a way. She gasped, eyes meeting Narcissa’s, who smirked and winked just as the portkey activated and dragged them off to Amsterdam.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus fuck we made it to 2021. Happy New year, and as a reward, IT GETS SPICY THIS CHAPTER. If that isn't your thing, after they leave the bookstore you can be on your way and come back next week for the last chapter.

They popped into the atrium of a bookstore larger than Hogwarts itself. Hermione couldn’t help herself, seeing all the shelves lined with book after book, she squealed at the top of her lungs and only kept herself from running forward by the skin of her teeth. Anathema summoned a piece of paper to her hand and passed it to Hermione. 

“A map of the bookstore and where they keep all the genres generally.” She flipped the paper over to a more broken out map. “And more specifically, and they do get rather specific if you take a look.”

Of course, Hermione did and the first one her eyes fell on was “13th century English Goblin History.” A bookstore that was large enough to have a whole section devoted to that one century in that one subject. Oh dear Salazar she was in  _ love _ .

“I’m not even sure where to start,” she breathed, looking over all of her options quickly. Did she start at arithmancy? Or runes? Transfiguration? Oh...maybe she should start at pureblood traditions, she might need to know some if she married both of her witches. She got a giddy smile on her face at the thought. It was too soon to have such a thought, but it definitely was never too soon to start reading up on something. She should go there first.

Narcissa unfurled a list. “I have some books I haven’t been able to find elsewhere that I think might be of use for our new anxiety potion, and if they’re anywhere, they’re here.”

Anathema’s eyes lit up. “That would be a good idea, I’ll check the runes section as well.” And then immediately she got even more excited. “Oh! I bet they have rare books of undetectable spying magic. Oh, that would be so handy for my side venture. How lovely.” She looked down at the map. “They even have a section for it. I take back every snarky comment I said before, bella amore, this is the best idea you’ve had in at least a week.”

Narcissa laughed. “I knew you would be even more onboard once I got you here. Dark, mysterious, murderous Anathema Zabini is really just a bookworm at heart, much as you try to hide it.”

“I hide nothing from you, amori. Though perhaps I am a bit more practical than a bookworm of a traditional sense. I do read things for a purpose.”

“How many books do you have stored on your nightstand, darling?”

In the dim light Hermione wasn’t sure but she thought Anathema might be blushing just a bit. “Four.”

“Hermione?”

“Three I think, I just finished one last night, though. It was a wonderful muggle urban fantasy book, I believe I’ll get the rest of the series when I’m next in muggle London. Nice to read before bed to wind a tired brain down. The other two are arithmetic texts, one about advancements made in the field by witches and one about the formulaic breakdown of triads and how the joining of three magical cores works.” She blinked. She hadn’t even thought about it when she picked it up from the store a month or so ago, but now, well. That might actually have practical applications. Had her subconscious known that then?

“Mmm, what a positively delicious thought, cara.” She looked at the map again. “Where are you going, do you think? Narcissa and I are going in the same direction at least for a while. If you are going our way, we could walk with you. I will certainly not complain about getting to hold you more.”

Hermione looked at the map, having forgotten just about everything in the wake of that. “Uh, I’m going to pureblood family traditions, so some of the way, but not as far as you and Narcissa.”

Narcissa and Anathema shared a knowing look but didn’t say anything more. She didn’t really mind them looking at each other like that. Whatever they were thinking was probably right. Just. She huffed silently. She wanted to spend every moment with them, wanted to remember every single step that would lead them into the future together, but at the same time she wanted it to be five years from that moment, wrapped up in bed with the two of them with a wedding band on her finger. It was wholly unreasonable, but the more of the night passed them by the more she was certain it was what she wanted. Merlin, she was going to be some sort of lesbian stereotype, wasn’t she? Should she just get the U-Haul? Did she really care?

Narcissa’s hand found hers again, lacing their fingers together and tugging her forward into the stacks towards their destinations. No. No, she didn’t care. She just. She loved them, right here, right now, it was that plain and simple. And she wouldn’t feel bad about it. And she wasn’t going to question it anymore. She felt what she felt. Their future together would be their future together, bright, golden, loving, and it would happen exactly at the speed they wanted it to happen and they would consult no one else about it. She felt peace wash over her at that thought, grabbing onto Anathema’s hand, smelling old books in the air, with her two favorite people. It was perfect.

Even more perfect when she found the shelf she was looking for and immediately found a text about Black family traditions right in front. She looked at the author and hummed under her breath. Not someone from the actual Black family but an outsider. She wondered how accurate it would be. Narcissa of course would have family books like this, but she had more than a passing feeling that such a book would be cursed against muggleborns. She could certainly figure out a way around those protections if Narcissa couldn’t just give her access, but that would take time. And reading a book and asking Narcissa what was and wasn’t right would probably be entertaining. She sent the book to the front desk as Narcissa instructed her to do. It couldn’t all be wrong. Well. Statistically, it would be improbable anyway. Now to find one about the Zabinis. 

She spent ten more minutes looking, picking out a book here and there, general pureblood wedding trends, house inheritance in the case of children of triads, notable pureblood triads and their impact on the history of magic, a compendium sex magic for triads from different pureblood grimoires, perhaps they had a theme, until she finally found a slim volume on the Zabinis. They weren’t the most powerful of houses in Italy, or perhaps they were and just liked to stay out of the limelight. Considering who Anathema was as a person, both were certainly possible. She sent that book on its way and looked over the section as a whole. She’d seen her fill for now, she thought. Now onto arithmancy. She wiggled happily, pulled out the map, and went on her way.

Thirty minutes and another dozen books later on anything that caught her eye, she heard the sound of familiar footsteps. She perked up and looked to her left. It sounded like Narcissa, and a second later she turned the corner, obviously looking for the arithmancy books as well, eyes already on the spines, looking them over, distracted, not seeing Hermione for a full minute. Hermione stood still, holding her breath to keep herself from snickering. It was adorable to see her so distracted by books. 

“Oh! Hermione!” Narcissa exclaimed when her eyes finally skirted across her, looking at the titles on the shelf behind her.

“Hello beautiful, what brings you to these parts?” She couldn’t help but laugh now at her own cheesy line.

“I think it might possibly be books, but perhaps it’s also the scenery.” She closed the distance between them and drew Hermione into a lingering kiss. “Have you found some interesting things?”

She perked up immediately, drawing Narcissa tighter to her. “I saw this one book earlier, I already sent it up to the front, about arithmancy and mental health spells that I think could help with your potions! It just came out this last year from a small press in Canada. From what I skimmed of it, it seems like a decently researched piece.”

Narcissa pulled her back in for another harder, longer kiss. Hermione felt her head spinning she was finally let go again. “You’re an amazing woman Hermione Granger. I can’t wait to read it with you and discuss. Anything else of note?”

“A few things here and there, but that was the most exciting thing so far.” She stepped forward and grabbed a title that caught her eye in all the wrong ways. “Now this, this I think could be chucked out the window and things would probably be better for it.”

“Women’s guide to arithmancy for a good man?” Narcissa’s lip curled in disgust. “Do I want to know what that contains?”

“I’m going to go with some patriarchal bullshit.” She shoved it back onto the shelf. “Did you find everything you needed?”

“Almost, there are a few rarer texts that I’ll have to look for a bit more, but I did cross quite a few off my list that I’d had a hard time finding a copy. This truly is a wonderful place.” She smiled and sighed, looking around a bit dreamily. “Now I’m just looking for things that catch my eye.”

“It’s dangerous to not have a set list of things to look for here. I think it might take even me half a year to read what I’ve picked out so far.” And yet another cover caught her eye, bright blue, the color of Narcissa’s eyes, gold filigree on the spine spelling out the title,  _ Application of Arithmantic Properties in Creature Finding. _ Now that would be a good birthday present for Luna. She grabbed it up and sent it to the front with a smile. “Very dangerous,” she said with a sheepish smile, turning back to Narcissa.

“Believe me, even while looking for things, it’s still dangerous. I found a stack of books that sounded interesting on potion making techniques I’d never heard of before, and a few on sourcing ingredients and exchanges. All will probably be handy for the business, but mostly I just wanted to read them because they sounded intriguing.” She wiggled a bit in anticipation. “Perhaps if we manage to pull ourselves out of the bedroom at all this weekend we might have a nice day in the library together with a pot of tea reading?”

“Godric, that sounds amazing. All of us just curled up together on a couch in front of the fire? Amazing.”

“Wonderful, then it will have to happen even if we don’t manage it this week.” She took another step away from Hermione, but still close enough that she could take Hermione’s hand if she wished, and started to look over the titles, with a smile on her face. They spent a few quiet minutes together just looking at books, pulling out a few every now and again, reading the synopsis if there was one, and handing it to the other witch if it was of interest. Which meant that at least five more books were at the front between the both of them. 

Hermione watched as their latest find zoomed off. “Anathema is very right. You’re going to have to add more shelves to the library.”

Narcissa cocked an eyebrow. “Not taking your books home with you, darling?”

“I’ll just have all the more reason to come see you and Anathema, then won’t I?” And someday in the future, well, Black Manor would be her home too, wouldn’t it? She was just saving herself moving a rather large number of books, among other things.

“I suppose that would indeed be a side effect.” A spark of mischief entered Narcissa’s eyes. “I knew you were just seeing me to get access to the library at Black Manor. I should’ve known.”

“Ah yes, I’ve been caught out,” Hermione said, playing along. “It is the oldest private collection in wizarding England, after all, how could I not want to see it? Perhaps dating you went a bit far in my plot to see it, but well, I don’t think anyone could blame me, do you? Not for such a beautiful collection.” She looked Narcissa up and down slowly to make it very clear that she wasn’t talking about a library anymore. She glanced back to the shelves for half a second, then back to Narcissa in her lovely, beautiful,  _ sinful _ dress, and as much as she wanted to browse the other sections of this bookstore, well, Narcissa’s kisses had put her right back into the desperate need of wanting more. Now if only Anathema would find them, she could suggest perhaps they leave their shopping for another day. She’d said it was a permanent portkey after all…

Narcissa’s gaze turned hungry. “I suppose they couldn’t, but it is missing a key volume, though I think I might have a line on where to find what I need soon enough.”

“Oh good.” Hermione stepped forward again, backing Narcissa up until she was pinned against the shelves again until their lips were a scant inch apart. “I wouldn’t want you to miss out on anything you truly want.”

“Well, well, amori, it looks as if I got here just in time, doesn’t it?” Anathema asked, pressing herself against Hermione’s back, one arm slipping around her waist, the other grabbing at Narcissa’s ass, pressing them all together with that much more force.

“Yes,” Hermione breathed out. “I just thought about you finding us a second ago. One would think you’re the mind reader.”

“No, just someone with incredibly good timing.” She leaned forward to nibble on Hermione’s ear lobe. “Though if you still needed some time I could be convinced to wander off elsewhere while you looked for books?” Her voice was smug. She knew Hermione wasn’t about to ask for more time for anything other than having the two of them pressed against her. Being in the middle of an Anathema-Narcissa sandwich was sinful, possibly deadly, but Merlin, if that was the way she went so be it.

“Don’t you dare go anywhere, Anathema Zabini, or I’ll hex you from here to Sunday.” She leaned back into the other woman. “Take us home, please, Circe, please, take us home. I’ve been desperate for you both all night and being like this has put it over the edge. If I’m not naked on your bed in the next five minutes I think I might actually die this time, joking aside.” The fire that had been banked by the thought of books, had been awoken again by Narcissa's kisses, was now burning inside her, hotter than a star. She felt herself starting to drip again and felt her knees losing more structural integrity by the minute.

Narcissa leaned forward, sucking skin into her mouth, using teeth and tongue to leave a trail of marks on her neck that had Hermione’s breath whimpering out of her. Oh Salazar, it was sinful. She wanted that mouth right where it was. She wanted it elsewhere. She couldn’t decide.

“Sunday is only a few days from now, that wouldn’t be so bad, I think.” Anathema’s voice was a lilting tease, accent just a bit thicker now that her voice was rough from being so very turned on. It did nothing to help Hermione’s incredibly turned-on state.

“‘thema, please,” she moaned as Narcissa hit a particularly sensitive spot. “Please take me home and fuck me. I want to be yours, both of yours, please.”

She felt Anathema’s smile against her skin. “Well, we would be fools to say no to that, wouldn’t we, bella amore?”

Narcissa pulled her mouth away for just long enough to say, “we truly would.”

“Well then, it’s settled.” Anathema activated the portkey, pulling Narcissa’s hand to rest atop it, pressing it against Hermione’s collarbone. “A lovely fun fact before we’re pulled off?”

Hermione didn’t have the breath to truly respond; she just nodded shallowly.

“It will transport us right into our bedroom.” She hummed, a dark, smoky sound that had Hermione even weaker in the knees than before. “I knew exactly how this trip to the bookstore would end.”

“Oh Merlin,” Hermione gasped just as the portkey grabbed them and pulled them off to Black Manor in a flash of blue light.

They landed in the middle of Narcissa’s bedroom again, now lit only with a few candles, giving the room a soft golden glow. Anathema left her back coming around to her front, pulling Narcissa back just enough so the both of them could look at her. Narcissa went willingly, looking at Hermione up and down, eyes darkening to a stormy sea blue burnished golden in the candlelight. In the dim lighting, Hermione couldn’t tell where Anathema’s pupils ended and her irises began, but what she did know was that she was on the receiving end of a very thorough eye fuck. Her heart started to beat even faster in her chest, so loud now that she could hear it in her own ears, it would be a miracle if the other two couldn’t hear it as well.

“What should we do first, bella amore?” Anathema asked, voice hushed, reverent, and sinful.

“Well, the logical first step is to get her out of that dress, pretty as it is on her.”

Anathema hummed. “We did do a marvelous job of picking it out, didn’t we?”

“I wager we did an even better job on the lingerie.”

“Only one way to find out, yes?” She arched an eyebrow at Hermione, feral smirk on her face, both asking for permission, and knowing what the answer would be in one.

Hermione nodded, swallowing hard. Oh Morgana, if she’d been turned on in the restaurant, even more so in the bookstore a few seconds ago, then now? Now she was thermonuclear.

Anathema waved her hand and in an instant Hermione’s dress disappeared to elsewhere, probably the huge closet again, she didn’t much care for the moment, because Narcissa and Anathema were taking in her half-naked form with untamed enjoyment. Narcissa reached out to gently scratch her nails across the plains of Hermione’s stomach, sending the muscles twitching and drawing a soft moan from her.

“Yes, yes we very much did,” Anathema said, voice breathless. “Certainly a view I wouldn’t mind staring at a bit longer, touching, tasting, before moving on to anything more satisfying.” Her hand reached out and found one of Hermione’s nipples, pinching it through the fabric.

“Oh fuck,” Hermione whined. Two touches and she already felt like she was about to come undone. How were these two women this intoxicating? “Please, ‘thema, tease me later?”

The two older witches looked at each other and smirked. “No, I think a bit of teasing is just what you’re due.” Narcissa’s smile was sharp. “Having morals is very attractive, darling, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t get a bit of pleasurable revenge for you keeping us waiting this long.” She leaned forward to nip along Hermione’s collarbone, leaving more marks along the way. She was going to have to find a better concealment spell for when she went back to work. As bruised as it looked like she might be after this, the one she knew to cover a hickey or two just wasn’t going to cut it.

“And when you finally come, cara, hard enough to forget where you are, while screaming our names? It will be worth it, and you’ll beg for it to be like this every time.”

Hermione whimpered. Here she thought perhaps she might fall in the middle of the pecking order, somewhere between Anathema and Narcissa in dominance, that was the vibe she’d gotten. Perhaps it might work out that way still, but certainly not for this first time. Oh no, for this first time she was theirs and theirs alone. And as much as she was desperate to come right there and then? She didn’t really mind.

“Can I at least feel you while you’re teasing me out of my mind?”

“If you can manage to get us out of our dresses while under our assault, then I don’t see why not, darling.” Narcissa’s words were muffled against her skin, kissing lower now along the edge of her bra, nipping sensitive skin, drawing Hermione’s nipples even harder. She couldn’t resist the urge to wave her hand, undoing the spell holding it up, sending the pins to the bedside table, so she could run her hands through Narcissa’s hair, holding the woman to her. Of course, the golden locks were soft as silk, still smelling faintly of fruit shampoo even hours later.

“I think that might be much more of a challenge than you think, don’t you, cara?” Anathema teased, plastering herself to Hermione’s side, one hand finding her ass and squeezing the supple flesh there, thong giving her access to as much skin as she wanted really, while the other slipped down to cup Hermione through her underwear. “Oh caro Dio, you truly are desperate already, aren’t you? Did you try and cast on yourself to clean up a bit, Hermione? Or were you a good girl for us and left everything there for us to find now?”

She hadn’t really even thought about trying to clean up. Why hadn’t she thought about that? She must have been far too distracted. Who could really blame her? “I was a good girl,” the words left her before she could really think about them, and her face heated up even more. All her blood was certainly in regions that weren’t her brain now, she was sure of it.

“Wonderful.” Anathema pressed in just enough to give Hermione a fleeting taste of what she needed before she pulled back again, drawing her fingers to her lips and smirking at them as they glistened in the light before licking them clean. 

“‘thema, oh Godric.”

Anathema hummed, pulling out her clean fingers and tracing damp patterns on Hermione’s stomach. “Narcissa, amore, you have to taste her, it’s like ambrosia.”

“I recall you said something similar about me, darling.” She pulled back enough to turn her head and capture Anathema’s lips in a searing kiss. Hermione watched the two of them, hot and heavy, and yet there were no wrong moves. They knew each other so well, and Salazar, if that didn’t turn her on even more. She needed to do something, had to do something. She reached out and found the hidden zipper at Narcissa’s back and drug it down quickly, loosening the fabric enough that when she slipped the shoulder strap off of the blonde’s shoulder, it fell to the floor in a puddle of silk.

“Oh bloody fucking hell,” she whispered to herself, taking in Narcissa’s lingerie, a strapless, barely-there lace bra that Hermione could see right through to see hard pink nipples darting in and out of shadow as the woman moved against Anathema, matching barely-there lace panties, and worst of all, at least of her continued sanity, a garter belt holding up thigh-high stocking that matched Narcissa’s skin tone so well she hadn’t even realized the other woman had been wearing any. Her mouth watered just at the  _ thought _ of rolling them down and off her legs, kissing back up and then tasting the woman from the source. Fuck, fuck, fuck, how was she supposed to function after seeing that?

“I think she likes what she sees, bella mia, don’t you?” Anathema whispered against Narcissa’s lips.

“Mmm, she’s thinking it so loud it’s rather hard to hear anything else.” There was laughter in Narcissa’s voice. “I can’t imagine what she’ll do when she manages to get your dress off. I think we might have to resuscitate her.”

“You might just be right.” She cupped one of Narcissa’s breasts with a gentle hand. “Considering I am missing at least one article of clothing you still have on, not that this bra should really be counted as an article of clothing, more a work of art, considering the coverage.”

Hermione’s brain stopped working entirely as she put together that with Anathema’s halter dress, there was no way the woman was wearing a bra underneath it. Oh, Nimue help her when she took off Anathema’s dress she was going to get almost a full view of her entire body. She might just have to be resuscitated, Narcissa was right.

“A good thing she took off my dress first then, isn’t it?” Narcissa teased, turning back to Hermione and capturing her lips in a kiss that fried whatever brain was left after her most recent realization.

“Oh very much.” Anathema’s fingers went back to tracing patterns on Hermione’s skin, sending goosebumps all over her, causing her to shiver. “And when she inevitably loses all structural integrity, we can just move her to the bed and have a nice time with one another while she recovers from an overload of beautiful woman.”

Oh, now Hermione’s impulsive wholly Gryffindor side was rising to the fore. She had exactly no brain cells to control it now, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to anyway. She loops her hands around Anathema’s neck, raising a challenging eyebrow at the woman before she found the clasp and undid it carefully, dropping the dress down to the floor, letting gravity do the work for her. Anathema smirked and stepped back half a step, letting Hermione take in the scrap of green lace that qualified as her panties, and nothing else on her body. Hermione’s eyes drifted over soft, dark skin, toned and smooth. The woman was in great shape for any age and Hermione wanted to worship every single inch of her, but Merlin, did she want to spend ages exploring her breasts. She reached out, pulling Anathema back in, hands finding her goal, cupping Anathema gently, rubbing her thumbs over hard nipples, a nice bit more than a handful that she squeezed softly.

“I haven’t fainted,” Hermione said smugly. Mostly because if she stopped touching the other woman she might die, but that was beside the point.

Anathema let out a stuttering breath. “So you haven’t, cara.”

Hermione shifted her hand enough that she could pinch one of Anathema’s nipples and the other woman moaned. Narcissa leaned against Hermione, hands repeating the same motions on her as she used on Anathema.

“She’s so very sensitive there. I’ve made her come from touching just her breasts alone more than once. I highly doubt she’ll let you get that far this time, but oh, darling, I recommend it one lazy morning. She’s beautiful when she comes like that, somehow even more desperate than normal, begging for release. It’s really rather worth any revenge she might want to seek for the injustice later.”

“Fuck, ‘cissa, you can’t just tell me these things.” She swallowed hard. “I mean you can, please do, but I’m already so fucking wet for the both of you it isn’t even funny and that did  _ not  _ help.”

“Mmm, you’ll find it wasn’t meant to, darling.” She bit down on a bruise she’d left earlier, sending Hermione towards the floor as her knees caved in under her. She managed to catch herself after half a second, but Godric, did they need to take this onto the bed before she accidentally landed on her ass on the carpet.

“Bed, please?” she whimpered out.

Anathema smirked, pulling Hermione forward and scooping her up in one motion, carrying her towards the bed five feet behind them. “I thought you’d never ask, cara.”

“Holy shit oh my fuck, you can carry me?” Hermione squeaked out without thought. Her brain was just too damn overwhelmed with gay and the curse was  _ not  _ helping. First thing she was going to do in the morning was take it off of all of them. She wouldn’t know any peace, not with the two women she loved by her side, but at least she might be able to keep her mouth shut a little more often, and wasn’t that the same thing?

“It pays to be stronger than I look in certain situations, cara, especially with my side work. No one much expects a witch to have a rather deadly right hook. It sends them to the ground long enough for me to get back my wand and secure them more permanently.” She put Hermione down on the bed. “In the center, if you please.”

She scrambled to obey the woman. There was no thought in her head right now that wanted to try and test the limits of Anathema’s command over her. She just wanted to obey and then to come, in that order, hopefully in the next few minutes if she had her way of things.

“Godric, that’s so hot,” she breathed out, settling back on pillows that smelled of both Anathema and Narcissa. She sighed and sunk further into the bedding. It would be lovely later to sleep surrounded by the scent of them after being completely exhausted at their hands. 

“So is seeing you on our bed,” Narcissa purred, tucking herself into Anathema’s side at the end of the bed. “Have we teased her enough, can we undress her the rest of the way, ‘thema? Please?”

Anathema chuckled, low and dark as sin. “Always so impatient to unwrap her presents. You will have to hide any Christmas presents you buy her at a friend’s house, cara, or else she’ll rip apart the house looking for them.”

“I will nnn-” the words choked off in Narcissa’s mouth as she tried to lie. She crossed her arms and harrumphed, but she didn’t pull away from Anathema at all. “Fine, it’s my favorite holiday and I get rather excited. I may also try and look in your friend's houses if I know them well enough. Seeing as it's you, you might get away with it without a fuss considering I don’t know many of your friends well. Anathema made the mistake of hiding presents at our mutual acquaintances a few years running.” She smirked in a self-satisfied manner. “I figured out all of my presents those years. She always does such a good job of getting me just what I wanted.”

“Noted, I won’t hide them at Harry’s. Knowing you, you’d probably find a way to finagle an invite to tea out of him considering everything.” She blinked. Christmas was months away, and they were already thinking about celebrating with her. It brought a soft smile onto her face.

Narcissa’s lips pushed out into just a slight pout and Hermione wanted to kiss her desperately. Thankfully, Anathema put her out of her misery and kissed Narcissa for her, drawing her in, hands wandering over Narcissa’s pale skin, drawing moans from the other woman until they both were breathless and pulled back for air.

“She’s foiling your plots already, bella amore, whatever will you do?” Anathema teased, smiling with already kiss bruised lips.

“Find a better plot, I suspect.” Her eyes flicked to Hermione. “But my original question still stands, can we strip her the rest of the way, darling?”

“Mmm, we can, but I think it’s only fair that if we strip her, we engage in a little quid pro quo. After all, she should get to feel just how wet we are as well.” Her hands slid down to cup Narcissa. “And you are almost as wet as our dear Hermione.” She drew back glistening fingers and popped them into her mouth the same way she’d cleaned her fingers earlier of Hermione’s essence.

“As if you aren’t the same?” Narcissa challenged, slipping her own hand between Anathema’s thighs and coming back with wet fingers, smirking at Hermione before licking the digits clean.

“Don’t mind me,” Hermione moaned, “I’m just dying over here, it’s fine.”

Anathema laughed once again. “Oh, cara, you’ve barely begun to know what death is at our hands.”

Hermione choked on a breath. Well, she might just die physically and not metaphorically now. That was fine. It was a good way to go. She’d have no regrets.

Narcissa slipped her hands into the waistband of Anathema’s underwear and slid them off with practiced ease. “Might as well do you first since there is so little to take off, hmm?”

Anathema smirked and turned towards Hermione, stretching her arms over her head to accentuate the view. Hermione felt her mouth go completely dry and any moisture left in her body migrate decidedly south. She whimpered and reached out subconsciously. She  _ needed _ to touch the other woman and she needed it right now.

“I think she likes what she sees,” Narcissa purred, licking her lips.

“I think she just might, bella amore.” She laughed and turned back towards Narcissa, circling her arms around the other woman. “I feel the same way, no matter what woman I’m looking at in this room, so I understand her feelings.”

“Smooth talker. You just want me out of my lingerie.” Narcissa stepped further into Anathema with a contented sigh. “I suppose that is amenable.”

“We already knew it was, of course, but permission is always appreciated.” Her hands slipped to the back of Narcissa’s bra and made quick work of the fastenings. It slipped from her to the floor and Anathema wasted no time cupping Narcissa’s breasts in experienced hands, drawing a moan from the blonde a second later.

“Fuck,” Narcissa moaned, and the curse from her mouth sounded so elegant it turned Hermione on that much more. “She’s always known where to touch me from the start. It was rather unfair. I had no clue where to touch her the first time. Of course, I learned quickly, but still, unfair.”

“What do Slytherins care about unfair, bella?” She pinched Narcissa’s nipples hard and then catching the woman when her knees gave. “You certainly don’t. Our second time together and you took what I taught you and then turned it on its head and I couldn’t walk quite right the next day.” She smiled, a rather lovestruck, dumb expression on her face. “And you keep surprising me. I would rather like to be surprised for the rest of my life by you both.” She slipped her hands down to Narcissa’s panties and tugged them off. “There, just as accessible as I want you.”

“Like you couldn’t fuck me with my full robes and lingerie on,” Narcissa said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve done it before. That time in the hall after you kissed Hermione for the first time comes to mind.”

Hermione whimpered. “You fucked after you kissed me?”

“Oh the first day I kissed you we did in the hall and then in the kitchen twice because Narcissa was so turned on from hearing about the kisses we exchanged. Then the next day when we all kissed she dragged me home and kept me up until sunrise she was so worked up.”

“Oh Godric, please, I want that,” Hermione groaned, hands grabbing the sheets below her. She felt like she was on fire and they hadn’t touched her in minutes.

“We will surely give it to you.” Narcissa crawled onto the bed slowly, inching up Hermione’s left side while Anathema paced on the other side, smirking from the edge of the bed until she drew even with Hermione and then climbed on the bed beside her. 

“Up, cara.”

Hermione sat upright so quickly under any other circumstance she might have pulled a muscle. Hands were at her back unhooking her bra in a second and tossing it elsewhere. Another set of hands pushed her back again, she wasn’t even sure whose at this point, it didn’t matter to her really. All that mattered to her right now was that they were stripping her and that soon hands would find their way to where she desperately needed them. Another hand tapped her hips and she raised them up enough that someone slipped her panties off before she lowered back down and they pulled them off her ankles.

Narcissa pulled them to her nose and inhaled. “She does smell delightful, darling, you were right.” She smirked and threw them over her shoulder. “But now I can get it right from the source so no more need for those, except perhaps to frame. Goodness knows they certainly are ruined for anything else. Our little Hermione, so desperate for us.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Hermione chanted, spreading her legs, hoping to encourage them both to touch her more where she needed.

“Patience, cara, we will certainly get there, but first.” Anathema lowered her mouth to Hermione’s breasts, kissing and nipping the same skin that Narcissa had bruised earlier and sending sparks of magic through Hermione. Oh, sweet Salazar. She arched into the touch, hands finding their way into Anathema’s hair, holding her tightly to her body, begging for more.

“So responsive,” Narcissa cooed, running a hand over Hermione from shoulder to hip, fingers leaving goosebumps in their wake, spending a few moments on any spot that made Hermione gasp or still. “Oh ‘thema, she’ll scream so prettily for us soon. I want her to scream so loud the wards will have a hard time holding the sound in. Then I want to catch the next scream on my tongue.”

Anathema pulled back for long enough to reply. “I think we can do that, amore. Our lovely cara won’t much know what hit her, I think, but she’ll remember this for the rest of our lives.”

Oh, Hermione certainly would, even if the night stopped here. She was more than positive she’d never been this turned on in her life. She’d felt stirring in her magic before during good sex, but right now it felt as if it was going to burst out of her skin, and even more it almost felt as if Narcissa’s and Anathema’s magic was reaching out towards hers as well. They hadn’t quite met just yet, but she could feel the near misses of their joining as electric zings on her skin, edging her higher and higher as Anathema went back to worshipping her breasts and Narcissa leaned down to do the same on the other side.

She couldn't hold back the moans, whines, and whimpers. There was far too much going on for her to even think about doing so. The louder she got, the more ardent Narcissa became in her attentions. So if Anathema’s weakness was her breasts, Hermione rather figured, in a vague and abstract way considering her brain was not wholly online, that Narcissa most likely had an auditory kink. Oh Merlin, she wondered if the woman could get off just listening to her and Anathema fuck each other. They would have to try that soon, possibly later that night if she was lucky. She squirmed again, trying to push them both down her body to where she needed them. She’d been turned on beyond belief before, but after that thought it still seemed as if she had more to give.

“She’s going to be just as bratty and demanding as you, bella mia,” Anathema said, taking her mouth off of Hermione, much to her disappointment.

“It seems so, but what else were you really expecting from the Golden Girl, darling?” Narcissa asked, mouth just out of reach of Hermione’s skin now, but close enough she felt the vibrations ripping along her, still teasing her in just the slightest way while doing absolutely nothing to her.

“Oh, exactly this. I think once she finds her place between us you might just be in trouble. She is almost as demanding as I am after all.” Her fingers found Hermione’s nipple and twisted hard, earning a yelp from Hermione and a slight jerk of her body. She would’ve gone farther, but pinned as she was under the other two women she barely moved. “But she’ll never be more demanding than I am.” She licked her lips, looking down at Hermione with predatory eyes. “At least not without my prior planning. Sometimes it is good to let go, yes?”

Narcissa moaned, “Oh Salazar, yes, please. I would love to watch.”

Anathema smirked, glancing towards Narcissa for a second before meeting Hermione’s eyes again. “And watch you would. I’m imagining you tied up, unable to touch yourself, with your wand spelled to that vibration pattern that keeps you right on the edge of coming, but never pushes you over, then you can watch us, wait for us to be done, and then we’ll attend to you, amore.”

Narcissa was practically melting into a puddle on top of Hermione. “Yes, please, ‘thema, I’ll do anything.”

Anathema cupped her face tenderly and kissed her for a long moment. “Oh, amore mio, I know you will. And I will do anything for you in return. For both of you.” A wicked smile crept onto her face. “At least for the most part, the bedroom, well, you enjoy the give and take there, don’t you, Narcissa?”

Narcissa nodded. “Can we make her come now, my darling?” She fidgeted in a way Hermione didn’t think Narcissa ever would, almost shy? Needy maybe? Something which she didn’t quite have the skills to parse just now. “I need you while she recovers.”

“Hmm,” Anathema hummed, debating. “I do so love to tease, and teasing two witches at once is a lovely new experience.” She tucked a strand of hair behind Narcissa's ear with gentle fingers. “But I suspect anymore teasing and we might lose our cara to insanity and you to a mild case of dehydration. You’re dripping onto the bedspread aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Narcissa breathed.

“Good, good. Then yes, I suppose we can.” She pressed Narcissa’s mouth back into Hermione’s breasts as she herself moved further down Hermione’s body. 

Oh Godric, Helena, Rowena, and Salazar. In a moment Anathema Zabini was going to be eating her out. Fuck. Oh, fucking fuck. How was she going to survive such a wicked clever tongue?

She probably wasn’t.

That was more than fine with her, though she should have probably at least updated her will first before coming on this date. If Narcissa and Anathema were going to kill her, they should at least get something out of it, she thought. It was only fair. This was how everyone wanted to die, right? Well, everyone said peacefully in their sleep, but really if they had the option to die by orgasm who wouldn’t?

“‘Thema, please, please, please,” she begged as she felt Anathema’s breaths on her wet flesh, just hovering above her for a few long seconds. 

“You do beg so prettily, cara,” Anathema said before licking long and slow from Hermione’s opening to her clit. 

Hermione would’ve levitated off the bed if Anathema hadn’t had a grip on her hips and Narcissa on her chest. She felt her magic wild within her wanting to do  _ something _ but spinning at an end about just what to do if floating wasn’t an option.

“Oh, darling,” Narcissa moaned. “Your magic, I can feel it on your skin, it tingles very pleasantly.”

Anathema stopped her long, slow licks to hum her approval. “Imagine riding her thigh when she’s like this. Her magic is so much different than ours, so exuberant, eager to please, imagine what it will do to us.”

“Merlin,” Narcissa whispered. “It already feels so wonderful riding you like this. I can’t even imagine.”

Anathema’s hand found Narcissa’s for a moment, squeezing gently before going back down and gripping Hermione’s hip. “Next time then, I’m sure she won’t mind getting to see the both of us get off.” She could practically hear the mischievous smirk in the other woman’s voice. “I bet we could make her come without touching her that way if we channeled the magic right.” She nipped lightly at Hermione’s thigh. “Something tells me she hasn’t quite been introduced to sex magic as fully as a witch of her status should.”

This was only driving her farther and farther up the metaphorical wall. It was like they knew every single button she had and were mashing them over and over again. “Not really,” she managed to gasp out, hoping that that would end the talking for now. She’d had a taste of Anathema’s mouth but she wanted more, so much more. “Done some reading. A couple partners have done a thing or two, nothing grand.”

“Wonderful,” Anathema said before diving back in, exploring with a bit more purpose now, finding the spots that made Hermione gasp and writhe and then keeping her just on the edge before moving to a new spot and repeating the process. Over and over again she brought Hermione to the edge, but never over. She would’ve thought that Narcissa sucking and nipping on her breasts would’ve helped send her over the edge when she only just needed that last little bit, but no, of course not, they worked as a seamless team. As soon as Anathema would bring her close, Narcissa pulled back without a word exchanged between them, giving only the barest of stimulation with the hottest, most superior grin on her face that Hermione would have to kiss off of her later when she had functioning limbs.

“Please!” She begged again, throat already feeling a bit tender from just how loudly the two witches in bed with her had made her moan.

“Anathema will play with you until she’s done and not a moment before. It’s best just to give in, darling.” Narcissa cupped her face tenderly and kissed her, drinking down her moans and groans and cries like they were a fine wine.

She screamed when Anathema slipped a finger in, just one finger. She’d always needed at least two to really get going, but no, as worked up as she was right now, it didn’t damn well matter to her. Her magic reached out, slamming into Narcissa, asking permission, begging for it, needing the connection. Narcissa shuddered above her, breaking the kiss and whimpering.

“Hermione, oh fuck, I can’t, ‘thema.”

_ “Come for me. Both of you come for me.” _ Hermione heard it in her mind only, felt Anathema at the edges of her consciousness, felt Narcissa’s magic accepting her own, and she screamed and came the next instant as Anathema's finger swept over her front wall, dragging even more pleasure from her. She felt Narcissa crash over too, felt her magic press against the other woman’s, dragging her over the edge, fuzzily hearing a whimpering cry under her own screams, and sighed in satisfaction. She’d made Narcissa come without touching her. She would be very proud of that later, but for now, for now she was just trying not to jerk too much and accidentally knock into Anathema. She licked Hermione through the aftershocks, gentling her tongue, cleaning her up carefully, licking up every drop of wetness with care before she crawled up Hermione’s side and sprawled out, propping up her head on her hand so she could look down at a thoroughly wrecked Hermione, and the night had barely just begun.

“I wouldn’t try to move for a few minutes. Narcissa made that mistake our first time and she face planted on the bed. At least it was a soft surface. And I also used the new position to make her come just as hard again a few minutes later. It was rather delicious.”

“Mhm,” Narcissa hummed her agreement, face resting in the crook of Hermione’s neck while she got her bearings again. “And when you finally let me have a moment, I returned the favor, did I not?”

“And so you did.” Her free hand reached out to trace light patterns on Narcissa’s back, a tender smile on her face. “It was lovely, bella amore.”

“I think we should do the same to her now,” Hermione whispered into Narcissa's ear. She was still twitching from an occasional aftershock, but she could probably make her limbs function in the next minute or two if she put her mind to it, and she would, because she desperately needed to see Anathema come undone now that she’d had her first orgasm and had the edge taken off of her own physical need.

“We should. A tag team against the both of us, perhaps we might actually stand a chance.” Narcissa laughed softly, still boneless against Hermione. “Though you will have to give me a few more minutes, not all of us are so young.”

“We’re witches. We’re all still relatively young.” She pinched Narcissa's side lightly in protest. “No need to dottle into your dotage just yet.”

Narcissa countered that with a hard bite to Hermione’s neck. She moaned loudly, another round of aftershocks rocketing through her. Probably not what Narcissa had meant from such a bite, but well, Hermione had always liked it a bit rough, so that was certainly what she got. For the blonde’s part, she smiled against Hermione’s skin at her moan.

“Plotting against me amori?” Anathema asked, slipping closer to Hermione, pressing their cooling bodies together and relaxing into her completely.

“Only pleasurable plots,” Hermione admitted, turning towards Anathema and kissing her, tasting herself on the other woman’s lips. “And really, you should’ve known it was coming even before we started whispering to one another.”

“Oh, I had a feeling.” She bit her lip. “And if I turn your plots on their head and take charge again?”

Hermione raised an eyebrow at the challenge. “I’d like to see you try, love.”

“I’d love to see you stop me.”

“‘cissa?” Hermione asked, voice dropping low.

“I believe that was motivation enough to move, yes,” Narcissa confirmed.

“Good.”

Hermione waved a hand, sitting up, bringing Narcissa with her to allow the spell room to work. Silk ropes formed around Anathema’s hands, looping around the bedposts and pulling her arms up and over her head, tight enough that it wouldn’t be easy to get free, but loose enough that they could be slipped in an emergency with a wave of a hand and a bit of will. 

“I think her legs as well, darling, otherwise she’ll have far too much room to move and she’s known to be rather wily after all.” Narcissa licked her lips.

Hermione looked to Anathema for permission and found burning eyes there, daring her to do so. She scooted her and Narcissa to the side and with another wave of her hand, Anathema’s legs were tied as well. And Merlin above if that wasn’t a picture, Anathema spread out waiting for them to ravish her.

“I rather suspect she might still be able to get out of this, if given half a moment to think,” Narcissa said.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it, but were we planning on giving her a moment?” Hermione’s hands drifted down from their perch on Narcissa’s waist down to grip her ass.

Narcissa arched forward, sighing at the touch. “No, I rather didn’t think we were, but keep touching me like that and we’ll give her a show instead of playing with her.”

“She does love to have her ass squeezed,” Anathema confirmed. “Especially in public without anyone else noticing. I’ve been working on a spell for it, I’d love your input for it when you have a moment. I haven’t quite gotten it right just yet.”

Narcissa shivered in Hermione’s arms. “I walked in on her once testing it out, it rather ripped apart the practice dummy.”

“Too much force.” Anathema shrugged as best she could tied as she was. “It was the most obvious place for such a spell to go wrong, and I have fixed it some, amore, you just haven’t seen the progress.” Her face scrunched up a bit. “Not enough, still, but I am working on it.” Her scrunched look morphed into a grin. “Not that I know you wouldn’t mind a bruised ass from time to time to remind you of just whose you are, but not as an everyday tease.”

“I think if she’s allowed to continue talking she might just talk her way out of her bonds,” Narcissa said, hips now rocking into Hermione’s touch, trying to find some sort of friction again.

“She might, but I find I do rather like the dirty talk and I am stubborn enough that I’m not letting her go until we’ve accomplished what we came here to do.” She squeezed Narcissa’s ass a bit harder, drawing a groan from the other woman. “Besides, we have to give her some sort of fighting chance, don’t we? And also if we don’t gag her...well, there are other ways to keep her quiet, don’t you think?”

“Oh, Miss Granger, putting that rather large intellect of yours to work already tonight, how lovely.” Her breath was starting to come in pants. “I could think of a way I would very much like her to use her mouth right now.”

“Mhm, I thought you might. I think it’s only fair, though, that I work you up just a little bit more for her, though.” She slipped one of her hands around, carding through neatly groomed curls and finding Narcissa's clit easily. She made a few lazy circles around it, grinning as the blonde’s hips jerked.

“Fuck, Hermione,” Narcissa whined. “How am I already so close again.”

“Magic,” Hermione said, deadpan before breaking into soft laughter. She kissed Narcissa’s neck, making tighter circles, feeling the older woman grow tenser in her arms before she pulled away much to Narcissa’s disappointment. “Up, you know where to go.”

“Now cara, that was delightfully cruel. Perhaps we’ll make a Slytherin out of you yet,” Anathema said before Narcissa moved into position and silenced her, desperate to come.

Perhaps they would, who knew. She had her own plans while Narcissa was occupying Anathema’s mouth, and they involved fucking Anathema until she screamed into Narcissa’s wet center and threw them both over the edge. Well, at least that was the ideal plan, as long as she got the scream, she would be happy no matter what.

She slipped her fingers through Anathema’s wetness, and Circe, there was so much of it. The older woman shuddered under her touch, magic reaching out with a purpose to encourage Hermione onward. She smiled. Of course, Anathema would find some way to reach out even as she was tied up, even as Narcissa was riding her face, already moaning loudly, chasing the orgasm that Hermione had denied her. She expected nothing less. She opened herself up, shivering as Anathema sensed the open access and surged forward.

_ “Cara please, I need you, tease me next time?”  _ Anathema thought right into Hermione’s mind.

Hermione didn’t quite know how to reply to Anathema, but instinct said that it was as easy as just thinking to herself with some intent towards Anathema, connected as they were currently.  _ “You teased me for much longer than I thought I could take. I think you should have to beg at least a little better than that to get what you really want, ‘thema.” _

_ “Gods, Hermione.”  _ There was a burst of light across her brain, an emotion, she thought, but not one she could put a name to. They obviously processed emotions differently, and outside of explicit thoughts and actions, maybe memories if she dug a bit deeper, more abstract concepts of how things were parsed in the other witch’s brain didn’t quite translate. Perhaps with a bit more time she might be able to decode some things, it would be interesting to see. 

She continued to teasingly run her fingers through Anathema’s wetness, waiting for the other witch to gather herself enough to express another full thought or at least start begging in a meaningful manner. Her magic was restless against Hermione’s, she felt her struggling to do something, felt most of the concentration she did have focused on bringing Narcissa to orgasm. Perhaps she should be a bit merciful on the other woman.

Or not.

She drew her fingers away and licked them clean, sighing at the taste of Anathema, tangy, just a touch bitter, with earthy notes. She tasted lovely, something Hermione wouldn’t mind savoring for the rest of her life. She let Anathema feel just what she was doing, her pleasure at the taste, felt a different zing of feeling cross the other woman’s brain and smiled. It had been red hot and while she wasn’t one hundred percent sure, she could guess what it had been; arousal. She smirked and let her hand drift back down to keep teasing the other woman.

_ “Please, Hermione!”  _ She moaned loud enough that Hermione heard it even with Narcissa muffling the noise.

_ “Almost enough, love, a little more groveling.”  _ She sent the impression of a wink through, or at least hopefully she did. She wasn’t sure how far she could push these things. She would certainly need to find a book on this kind of magic as soon as possible. She’d never really been this compatible with anyone before she hadn’t much seen the need. She’d been able to do whatever she’d needed to without much thought, but now, now she wanted to know so much more, wanted to  _ do  _ so much more.

_ “Oh, cara, please, please, I need you inside of me desperately.” _

Hermione smiled and slipped one finger in slowly, making sure the woman was ready, which she was more than. Her finger slid in with ease, she pushed in and out a few times before adding another finger before Anathema had to beg for it. She’d done her begging for the night as far as Hermione was concerned. She felt wonderful around Hermione’s fingers, so wet and hot and soft. Her walls were already fluttering. They all had been so worked up for this first time for months, it was more than obvious. 

Narcissa screamed loudly, back arching, tossing her head back, hair flowing down her back in golden waves as she cried out her release. Hermione waved her free hand to release Anathema’s bonds for long enough that she could catch Narcissa and lower her to the bed, boneless as she was, a satisfied, almost dopey grin on her face. Or it would have been dopey if it was anyone other than Narcissa Black, anyway, Hermione was sure that Narcissa didn’t do dopey. She curled into Anathema and sighed, completely satisfied for the moment.

“You always were good with your tongue,” she said slowly, words just coming back to her.

Hermione waved her hand again and Anathema was tied back up just the way she wanted her.

“Cara, you love me tied up much more than planned, don’t you?”

Hermione arched an eyebrow. “And you love it more than planned as well, don’t you?”

“Touche.”

Hermione started thrusting her fingers again, silencing anything else Anathema might have to say about the subject quite readily. She fucked the woman slowly and steadily until Anathema’s breaths were short pants and she was wiggling, trying to force Hermione to go just a bit faster, to give her anything more, even just the tiniest bit. She didn’t give in though, just kept on until Anathema whined out, desperate to come. It shouldn’t feel this good to see the woman fall apart under her touch, but it very much did, almost as good as it had to fall apart for Anathema. The thought of a thousand more nights like this warmed her heart so very, very much that it must have leaked over the bond in decent enough detail that Anathema understood. She felt the other woman’s magic warm in return and Hermione couldn’t help but give in to the magic then.

She added another finger, curling them on the outstroke to hit the group of nerves on the front of Anathema’s walls, drawing cry after cry from the other woman. Her other hand found Anathema’s clit and rubbed it gently. She felt the older woman tensing, body drawing up on the edge of climax. Hermione glanced to Narcissa, a bit more awake and aware now and smirked. The blonde took the look for exactly what it meant and rolled up just enough to leave bruise bites on Anathema’s chest.

“Fuck! Oh fuck, amori!” 

“Come for us, ‘thema,” Hermione demanded. Another two strokes and Anathema did, toes curling, voice straining until she made no sound at all, face twisted in pleasure. It was the most beautiful thing Hermione had thought she’d ever seen.

She worked Anathema through the aftershocks and then finally withdrew her fingers, licking them clean again. There was no sense in letting it go to waste after all. And it was more than worth the quiet groan Narcissa let out watching her tongue flick over her fingers to catch every drop. Another wave of her hand and Anathema was free from the ropes binding her. Hermione collapsed down on her other side a second later, turned on beyond belief yet again, but satisfied for the moment having brought her lover over the edge.

“You realize, cara,” Anathema said after a few minutes, “that you’ll be paying for the begging, yes?”

“Oh, I figured,” Hermione admitted. “And I’m rather looking forward to whatever you come up with.”

“Why come up with anything when we’ve already had a wonderful idea?”

Hermione looked into dark, wicked eyes. “Oh?”

“Narcissa, how would you feel about trying to get her off with magic alone?”

Narcissa perked up. “The grinding against her thigh idea from earlier?”

“Indeed, bella amore.”

Narcissa was up and pushing Hermione down flat onto the bed without a second thought. “I might have been waiting for you to say the word, darling.” She settled on Hermione’s thigh, wetness painting the skin there in large quantities.

“Oh Godric,” Hermione breathed. She’d thought that maybe that would be later tonight, perhaps another night in the future, but here they were. Well. No time like the present she supposed.

Anathema pushed herself up on still vaguely unstable limbs. “Good girl, Narcissa.”

Narcissa shivered just a bit at the affirmation and smiled lovingly at Anathema.

“Now,” she spread Hermione’s legs wide enough that she could comfortably fit her leg next to Narcissa’s as she straddled the younger witch’s thigh and sunk down, almost as wet as Narcissa, “all that we have to do is make our little cara come. I think it will be easy enough, don’t you, Hermione?”

Hermione saw no other choice but to nod.

Anathema leaned down and kissed Hermione soundly before sitting back up again. “Good.” And then she started moving, covering Hermione's thigh in slick and sending Anathema shuddering. She had to still be so sensitive after coming, and yet her hips didn’t falter for a second.

Narcissa started moving a moment later, watching Anathema for a few instants with ravenous eyes before turning back to look at Hermione. Her hips rocked slowly at first, just little bits of movement, building up to longer strokes. She felt Narcissa’s magic knocking against her and Anathema’s still joined together from their coupling. Anathema opened up to her easily, and Hermione found didn’t have to do anything extra, Narcissa was just there with the both of them with permission from one of them. Interesting, she would have to remember that for later, but for now.

She set a hand on the outside of Narcissa and Anathema’s hips, trying to pull them to go faster, but had exactly zero luck with that idea. Both women on top of her were going the pace they were going to go and that was it. She supposed, in the long run, it might get them off faster, obeying what their body needed at the time, but Hermione had no doubt that they would try and draw this out as long as possible. She could already feel the little zings of pleasure coursing through their magic, and they’d been right, it was working her up right along with them, despite the fact that neither of them were touching her in any way that should really matter. She groaned and looked between them, begging with her eyes for them to finish this quickly.

Anathema just smirked. “Of course, cara, it’s not going to be so easy as you just making adorable pouty eyes. You should know that. You have to pay, after all, remember?”

Oh, she remembered alright, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t at least  _ try _ to persuade them.

“No, you’re going to hold on until after we come and then, and only then are you allowed to come yourself.”

Hermione felt something settle over her, a magical warmth, seeping into her body like a cup of tea on a cold morning. She sighed at the feeling. Anathema’s magic was soft and comfortable even as it was making sure she couldn’t come until instructed. It was a fair bit of magic, anyway. Hermione hadn’t exactly been sure she could follow Anathema's instructions to the letter of the law without them. And while perhaps she might want to find a way out of this spell later, right now she just wanted her two lovers to come and wanted to come in return. How was she so, so desperate for these women already all over again?

“Yes Anathema,” She breathed, squeezing the woman’s hip lightly, no longer trying to pull her forward, just needing to touch her, to ground herself in some way.

“And here I thought she’d buck against that,” Narcissa said, breathless, hips starting to move faster, a bit more erratically, getting closer to the edge again.

“Not this time,” Hermione admitted. “Maybe next time.” She winked up at the two of them. 

Anathema reached out and twisted one of Hermione’s nipples hard, drawing a cry from her. “So naughty, who would have ever suspected the Golden Girl liked breaking rules so much.”

“Every single professor I ever had,” Hermione sassed back.

Anathema laughed, throwing back her head to the ceiling. “Oh, that is so rich, cara mia, such a teacher’s pet and yet.”

“And yet,” Hermione agreed.

“I don’t think she’ll have any trouble being our pet either,” Narcissa said, slowly down, keeping herself right at the edge, waiting for Anathema to catch up to her. Her chest was heaving, a bit of sweat starting to glisten on her skin. Hermione wanted to taste it so desperately, but she didn’t dare move.

“No, I don’t think so either.” Anathema started to move her hips with a greater purpose.

“I’ve been told I don’t follow orders I don’t agree with well at all, just so you know,” Hermione gasped out, feeling the sustained pleasure from Narcissa and the mounting wave from Anathema.

“We’ll have plenty of time to work on it, amore.” Anathema’s grin was feral, edged with a hedonistic air. “Years and years of nights just like this until you get it right.”

“And if I never do?” Hermione barely got the words out. IF there wasn’t a spell on her keeping her from flying over the edge and coming, she would’ve already done so, perhaps more than once with pleasure like this flowing through her.

“Well then, we’ll need a lifetime then, won’t we? Just to make sure that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks as they say.”

“I love you,” Hermione said, the words just slipping out of her mouth. But they were true, and damn it why not admit them. She had resolved to stop doubting herself, her feelings earlier, this just seemed like an extension of it. “Both of you, so much.”

“We love you too, Hermione,” Narcissa said between pants. The magic between them swelled warm and complete, so overwhelming, so very overwhelming.

Anathema cried out her release, taking Narcissa with her a second later, lifting the spell on Hermione just as the largest peak crested, and she cried out as she finally got to come, echoing in their conjoined magic, drawing out a second peak from Narcissa and Anathema, sending them collapsing to the side of Hermione as their limbs gave out once more. Hermione’s eyes slipped closed, unable to keep the energy needed to keep them open.

When she blinked awake again, she was aware that time had passed, but not terribly much, maybe twenty minutes or so. She looked over to see Anathema asleep, but on the other side Narcissa was awake.

“Morning?” Hermione asked and then laughed. What exactly did you say after a sex induced cat nap with two of the most attractive witches in the wizarding world?

Narcissa smiled back at her. “Morning, of a sort, I suppose.” She yawned. “Though I think only long enough to clean us up and get us under the covers, hmm?”

Hermione felt tiredness still dragging at her limbs. They had all night and more nights besides. Sleeping a bit now wouldn’t hurt. “Sounds good to me.” She waved her hand, casting a gentle cleaning spell over them all, sending Anathema murmuring softly, but not waking up.

“Once she’s asleep, unless she wakes on her own, it will take an army to move her,” Narcissa said, summoning her wand to cast them into the air just enough so that the covers could settle over top of them.

Hermione looked at Anathema asleep on her shoulder and sighed, content. This was wonderful, just being cuddled like this. She blinked after a second though. “Wait, does she have some sort of bonnet that she sleeps in for her hair?” She turned back to Narcissa. She’d been doing some reading, hair care for black hair followed many of the same beats that hair care for her own curly hair did, but she usually just braided her hair before bed instead of opting for a cap, she hadn’t much noticed a difference either way, but she had a feeling Anathema most assuredly would.

Narcissa’s smile was soft as she waved her wand again and an emerald green bonnet appeared on Anathema’s head. “Of course she does.” She leaned forward and kissed Hermione deeply. “And we have to take care of our love.” Another flick of her wand and Hermione felt her face tingle a bit more, glancing to Narcissa to see her makeup removed, and figured the same had happened on her face. “Don’t we?”

“Always. I’ll always take care of both of you when I can.”

“We know, darling, we certainly know.” Narcissa tucked her head into Hermione’s neck. “Now rest, she’ll certainly wake us up again tonight for another round once she sleeps it off.”

Hermione dropped a kiss on Narcissa’s head and smiled. “I look forward to it.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are at the end. Thank y'all for the support on this story that I literally had to make two tags for. First story I had to create a tag for at all, which going into this I thought throwing Anathema in would mean this would be mostly a fun thing I wrote mostly for me and my girlfriend, but it ended up being one of my best supported stories overall. So thank you guys, especially those of you who left a review on every chapter. I see you and I appreciate you SO MUCH.

Hermione woke with the sun high in the sky, shining through the windows and edging towards their bed. She yawned and stretched. They’d seen the sunrise, just as she thought they would. Anathema had woken up perhaps an hour after they’d fallen asleep and Hermione had woken up to her head between her legs again, halfway to a glorious orgasm, Narcissa still asleep beside her. Her moans had finally woken the blonde woman who had gone right to helping torment her all over again. It had only built from there, mind-blowing rounds of sex, a quick cat nap, and then more. The night had been everything and anything she could have wanted from it and now she was just so...happy, content, certain.

This was it for her. These two witches, they were hers and she was theirs. She sighed and closed her eyes again, listening to the deep breathing on either side of her. Neither of her loves was awake just yet, though she had a feeling that hungry would be waking them up soon enough. It had to be past lunchtime, for sure. Her stomach growled at the thought. She had no idea where the kitchen was, but she was adventurous. She could go find it and make them all breakfast in bed. Her heart warmed at the thought. It would be adorable, probably a bit over the top, but fuck it. It would be well worth the looks on Anathema and Narcissa’s faces when they woke up.

She gently extricated herself from everyone’s limbs and then floated herself gently off the bed so she didn’t wake them. When her feet hit the ground she looked down at herself. Well. She probably shouldn’t walk around the manor naked, there were probably portraits scattered around such an old home, and she had a vague recollection that Narcissa had said she had a house elf, paid of course, but the elf didn’t need to see her naked, the poor dear. She slipped into Narcissa’s closet and found her robe from the night before right where she’d left it on the changing screen and then walked back out of the closet, tying it shut firmly and emerging into the hall. Now, where would she put the kitchens to an ancient manor if she’d designed it back in medieval times? 

Ground floor, obviously, now to choose the right wing. She wandered down the stairs, taking everything in that she hadn’t noticed the day before being so caught up in her lovers. It was a lighter home than she’d thought, Narcissa was definitely behind that though. There were hints of a similar decorating style to Grimmauld Place, but they were drowned out by airy touches that screamed Narcissa. She’d obviously remodeled after the war fairly extensively, but she’d kept some of the old heart of the house even as she made changes, and surprisingly it worked well. She saw a dozen places she’d like to curl up and read a book just standing at the bottom of the stairs, and it wasn’t very hard at all to imagine herself here full time just from that alone. When she saw the library she was sure she’d never want to leave.

But that wasn’t the goal. For now anyway. She looked left and right and decided right on a whim, walking down a long branching hall, glancing into rooms that looked well kept, but little used in the scheme of things. The place was truly far too big for one family, but wasn’t every manor, really? She heard sounds of water and scrubbing most of the way down the hall and perked up. Scrubbing might mean the kitchen, or at least the house-elf to ask where the kitchen was.

The hall ended in a big entrance to a huge kitchen space, obviously meant to cater galas at the drop of a hat with professional-grade wizarding appliances scattered around and one house-elf, standing on a stool to wash dishes in the sink, humming happily to herself, dressed in a neat, practical uniform.

“Um, excuse me?” Hermione asked softly, not wanting to startle the elf off the chair.

The elf turned around with a smile that morphed into a look of confusion. “Oh, you isn’t Miss Narcissa or Miss Anathema.”

Hermione walked forward. “No, I’m Hermione Granger, and you are?” She held out her hand to shake the little elf’s hand.

“Zelby, Miss Hermione, it is an honor to be meeting you!” She lit up again and shook Hermione’s hand. “Miss Narcissa has been talking alls about you, Miss Anathema too! They is loving you very muchly I thinks.”

Hermione melted at that. “I love them very much too. It’s nice to meet you Zelby. Say, I wanted to bring them breakfast in bed, could you help me? What are their favorite things for breakfast?”

Zelby’s eyes got huge. “Of course I will be helping Miss Hermione!” She snapped her fingers and a few pots, pans, and mixing bowls floated to the large workstation in the middle of the kitchen. Her stool scooted itself over to the table as ingredients flew to land beside the bowls neatly. Hermione had only a vague clue as to what everything would assemble, probably some sort of pastry and perhaps a decent portion of a full English, she wasn’t sure.

“Could you teach me how to make everything so if they stay over at my apartment, I could make it for them as well?”

Zelby seemed to be vibrating at a supersonic frequency as she nodded her head. “Of course, of course, of course, anything Miss Hermione will be wishing!”

An apron flew to Hermione's hands. She smiled at the little elf and put it on neatly over her robe. “Now, what are we making?”

“Miss Anathema be liking cornettos, she says for Zelby to be putting chocolate in them too because Miss Narcissa be saying she won’t wants any, but she do!” 

Hermione laughed softly. “Sounds like something she would do.”

“It is!” Zelby exclaimed, waving her hand and bringing the flour, salt, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, water, and what maybe was yeast and vanilla beans to the front of the ingredient list. “Miss Narcissa be liking a full English breakfast as a treat, and Zelby thinks she’ll be wanting a treat this morning.” She looked up at Hermione and smiled widely and a bit knowingly.

“I believe so too. I’ve always liked a Full English myself.” Especially when she could steal one of Anathema’s pastries too and have a bit of something sweet too.

“Oh, that be making Zelby glad Miss Hermione!” She pulled the bag of flour to her. “Now cornettos is being easy to make with magic, muggles would be having a much, much harder time, it would be taking many hours, but house-elves is having good magic that can speed up time.”

Hermione tilted her head. She wasn’t quite sure she would be able to replicate that. She’d have to look into it. There were some areas that house-elf magic worked but witches magic didn’t. “Could a witch do the same magic, do you think?”

Zelby nodded so hard her body shook again. “Yes, yes, yes, I am knowing the spell and wand movements as well to be teaching you!” She pulled a wooden spoon out of thin air and demonstrated a swirling movement that sort of looked like a spiral art, or maybe something more like a clock spinning while also moving in space.

She copied the movements until Zelby nodded. “Just like that Miss Hermione! You is as clever as they say. The words are grígori krýa anápafsi! Zelby is believing it’s Greek for quick and cold rest, which is being exactly what the dough needs to be doing.”

“Oh, that’s very clever. Grígori krýa anápafsi.” She nodded. Greek words after learning magic didn’t feel all that foreign on her tongue. What spells weren’t in Latin seemed to be in Greek, though that was mostly just for Western-based magic, for other cultures, the spells had much more diverse language bases. 

“Exactly Miss Hermione. Now, we is adding flour, water, milk, yeast, and water together and be mixing them until they are smooth then we can set a kneading spell. Zelby will be writing down the amounts for Miss Hermione later, but I has made them enough to know by eye what is good.” She quickly dumped the flour in the bowl until she nodded, then duped some of the yeast into the milk, stirring it around for a moment. “Dissolving the little yeasties in the milk is being easier and lets them spread out more in the dough.” Before she dumped them in the bowl.

The dough quickly came together with Zelby walking her through the recipe step by step. The little elf was a decent teacher. By the time the dough was being slipped into the oven to bake while they both worked to bring the rest of breakfast together, Hermione was fairly confident she could recreate them in the future if Anathema and Narcissa ever stayed the night at her flat. She smiled at the thought of the two witches she loved in her home, though for how much longer she would stay was an interesting point. She had a year left on her lease, at the very least, perhaps she would see then, though something told her this next year she wouldn’t be staying there very often at all.

When everything was put on the tray she looked at Zelby and smiled widely. “Thank you for teaching me how to make cornettos today and helping with the rest of breakfast, I really appreciate it.” She cast to levitate the trays in the air.

Zelby puffed up, pleased as punch. “Of course Miss Hermione, anytime yous be wanting teached the Misses favorite dishes I will be helping!”

“Wonderful. Have a nice rest of your day if I don’t see you again.” She turned towards the doorway, sending the apron off to the hook it had come from, and walking back upstairs to Narcissa’s room. 

She opened the door quietly and stepped in to find Narcissa and Anathema still asleep, but now curled around each other with soft smiles on their faces even in sleep. Godric, she loved them both so much. She sat gently on the bed, taking a mug of coffee and blowing on it, wafting the scent over the two witches hoping that would bring them slowly out of their slumber.

A few minutes later Anathema’s breathing changed and her eyes fluttered open a few seconds later. “Do I smell coffee, cara?” She asked in a sleep roughened voice.

“You do. I made breakfast with help from Zelby. She’s adorable.” She handed a cup to Anathema who sat up carefully and sipped the hot liquid with a sigh.

“Tea is lovely, but mornings are for coffee, espresso if I can find it, especially.” She curled herself around the cup like a cat seeking heat.

“There are fresh-baked cornettos to go with said coffee.” She pulled the floating tray with the pastries on it forward.

Anathema’s eyes lit up as she grabbed one with a sigh. “Oh, still warm, even better.” She scooted to kiss Hermione gently on the lips. “Thank you, cara, this was very sweet of you. I’ll be paying you back later with at least one orgasm, perhaps in the garden, if you would like to explore a bit.” Her smile was wicked and Hermione shook her head fondly.

“I might be able to be persuaded to something of that sort. It is basically summer after all.”

Narcissa took a deep breath and opened her eyes. “Coffee?” She asked, still a bit asleep and confused.

“There’s also tea too,” Hermione answered. “I brought breakfast in bed.”

“Merlin, we have to keep her ‘thema, she’s perfect,” Narcissa mumbled, sitting up and motioning the tray with the tea on it forward and pouring herself a mug. She sipped from it slowly as Anathema and Hermione looked on fondly.

“That is certainly the plan, amore,” Anathema said after a moment. “That is certainly the plan.” 

Hermione leaned against Anathema. “I thought she was the morning person and you were the late riser.”

“Oh, I am, but while she does get up early, it takes a bit for her to become sentient. I think that’s part of the reason why she gets up so early, so she has time to wake up before anyone has to see her.”

Narcissa glared at the both of them. “Some people kept me up until the sun rose and it’s just now one, that isn’t enough sleep. Eight hours is both a healthy amount of sleep and what I need as a person, and I haven’t gotten that, so forgive me if I need a bit of caffeine to get going.”

“Bella mia, you need a bit of caffeine to get going every morning even with eight hours of sleep.” Anathema leaned over, taking Hermione with her to kiss Narcissa on the cheek. “You look beautiful no matter what.”

Narcissa grumbled and continued to sip her tea, but she didn’t pull away from Anathema. Her eyes wandered over the rest of the food that Hermione and Zelby had made and she called forth the plates of Full English. “Zelby?”

“Mhm, she’s sweet, she taught me how to make cornettos with chocolate this morning too.”

Narcissa turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “How did you begin to find the energy after what, six hours of sleep?”

Hermione felt herself blushing. “Uh, six hours might be a luxury after the last few months? It’s been rather busy.”

Anathema and Narcissa shared a look. “That settles it, cara, today will be a lazy day. If you don’t have a nap at some point, we’re not doing our job taking care of you.” She sighed as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders. “Between you and Narcissa, I will have my work cut out for me to make sure my loves take care of themselves, yes?”

“We’re adults who can take care of ourselves!” Narcissa and Hermione said at the same time.

“Yet six hours of sleep is a luxury,” Anathema said, expression flat and voice completely deadpan. She turned to look at Narcissa. “And exactly how many lunches did you eat this week when I was not present?”

Narcissa grumbled again and finished off her first mug of tea, pouring herself another one and pulling the tray with her breakfast on it forward and starting to dig in with all the table manners she’d managed the night before at a posh restaurant. She didn’t deign to give Anathema a response, looking for all the world like a Queen, even sitting in bed completely naked while eating common fare. 

Hermione busied herself with pouring her own mug of tea to avoid answering herself. It wasn’t as if she  _ planned _ not to get eight hours of sleep, it just happened that way. She was a busy woman. She liked being busy up until a point. Her brain was never quiet, she always needed something to do. Though perhaps these past few months had been a bit busier than she’d wanted, but it had led her to Narcissa and Anathema, so she couldn’t regret it. Plus she was taking time off! It’s not like she didn't know it’d been a bit intense.

She opened her mouth to respond, but Anathema cut her off. “If you’re about to say anything other than a nap sounds nice, my love, then perhaps you should rethink your words.” She had a stern look on her face. “You may be younger, but I swear to the gods if you go before Narcissa or I do, I will find you in the next life and haunt you, cara. You aren’t allowed to leave us, ever.”

Hermione squinted. “But I’d be the one dead? How would you haunt me?”

Anathema just looked at her as if to say ‘do you doubt my capabilities?’ and honestly Hermione did not, even with that. Somehow she’d find a way to use the veil or something along those lines to find her and berate her on a daily basis.

“Fine, we can nap, I’m sure you can find a way to make me tired again.” She smirked and finally leaned forward enough that she could grab her own plate of food and started to eat. Zelby’s eggs were like heaven, Godric above.

Anathema reached forward and snagged one of the cornettos and bit into it, sighing. “We certainly can. It isn’t like we had much of anything else planned today but ravishing you anyway.”

Hermione blinked as a realization slammed into her. “Oh, but we should probably break the curse on you both today.” She looked to Anathema. “You have one of your circles for this around here somewhere I’m assuming?”

Anathema nodded. “The basement provides good flooring for such things, it’s down there.”

Hermione didn’t much want to think about why a basement would have good flooring for runic circles. It was probably solidly stone, and the last stone basement she’d known had been the dungeons in Malfoy Manor. She knew Narcissa wouldn’t have anything even vaguely like that in her home now, but her mind still went there, maybe always would at least for a moment before thinking of the actuality of a situation.

“Good, I broke the curse on Rosetta Hawthorn without it, but I would rather be more careful with the two of you.”

“But of course, we are of much higher caliber than that gutter wench,” Narcissa sniped.

Hermione snorted. She didn’t really disagree, but perhaps she shouldn’t say as such. Though the snort had probably done enough for that. Oh well.

“Also because I love the two of you, but whatever reason you want to attribute to it, that works too.”

Anathema’s smile was brilliant. “I will never tire of my two favorite witches saying the words I love you to me. Oh, it makes my heart flutter in my chest like I’m a school girl again.” She sighed happily. 

Even Narcissa’s grumpy face lightened with a smile at the words. “I feel much the same. Though I will be glad to be rid of this curse.”

“If you think you’re going to lie to me about eating lunch you have another thing coming bella amore. You know that I know when you’re lying no matter how well you think you hide it.”

Hermione giggled, almost spitting out a mouthful of tea in the process when Narcissa’s face morphed into a pout.

“I wasn’t going to lie about that. I meant more in business meetings darling.”

“Yes, amore, I believe that like I believe the sky is green.”

“Actually, the sky can be green before thunderstorms,” Hermione chimed in before her mind could really catch up with her mouth.

Narcissa looked at her for a moment before laughing hard enough she had to put her tea down. “Ah, see, you will believe me then, won’t you, ‘thema?”

It was Anathema’s turn to stuff a bite of cornetto in her mouth and not respond. Hermione smiled wide at the two of them. She loved them both so much. So very, very much.

They finished up breakfast lazily and curled together again for another little while. Hermione was full and drowsy, but they really should break the curse sooner rather than later. Not that it would hurt them if it was left in place a bit longer, just...for the principle of the matter really. They didn’t have to be under Diggory’s magic anymore so they shouldn’t.

“We should get up,” Hermione said sleepily. “Break the curse. Then I’d be very up for the nap I’m required to take.”

“So eager to get us uncursed, darling?” Narcissa asked, voice languid, yet still somehow elegant even on the cusp of sleep.

“Well, I mean you don’t have to be, so why should you be any longer than possible. I want you both to be comfortable, is all. I know you’ve gotten used to everything, but still, it would be better to be uncursed, yes?” She cuddled more into Anathema, loathe to get up even as she was reasoning that they should.

“Fair enough, cara, but we are used to it, and the bed is warm, and you feel lovely pressed against us. What is the real rush when we are all so very comfortable. That nap you volunteered for,” Anathema chuckled lightly, indicating that volunteering wasn’t really necessary, so much as the path of least resistance, “is almost upon us. Why fight it and get up now?”

“You make good points,” Hermione said around a yawn. 

“Don’t I always?” The older witch teased.

“I mean yes, but my data set is rather limited to the last few months.” She reached behind her to squeeze Narcissa’s hip. “You have a better insight.”

“She is right rather most of the time.” There was a smile in her voice as she continued, “sometimes it makes her insufferable, though.”

“And yet here you still are, amore.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t leave you for the world.”

“Nor I you.”

Hermione pulled them both as close as possible to her. “I love that you both love each other so much. I want to be like that with both of you one day.”

A soft kiss was pressed onto the crown of her head. “We’re already well on our way to that, cara mia.”

“Good. Good.”

Narcissa’s arm wrapped around her waist and she sighed, content. “I think so as well, darling.” She pressed a kiss to the back of Hermione’s neck.

Hermione wanted to respond to her as well, but she felt herself truly being drawn into sleep now. She was warm, safe, happy, and full of good food. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been this content in life. She didn’t want this day to end, for Monday morning to come and ruin this little long weekend of theirs, because it was just so very, very perfect, and exactly what she needed after everything, but even when Monday came, she would still have these two women, still have the memories of their first weekend together, and that was more than enough.

They all woke up a few hours later, the sun already making its way slowly towards the horizon yet again. It had been so long since Hermione had just truly wasted a day lounging and she felt marvelous. She sat up and stretched, refreshed in more than one way. She turned to her loves with a smile, taking in the hungry looks on their faces as they looked over all the bare flesh that her sitting up out of the covers had exposed.

“Break the curse then you can have me any way you wish?” She asked.

“I suppose it is fair considering you did nap as instructed, that we don’t just take you now as we wish,” Anathema said.

Hermione glanced back at her and raised an eyebrow. “With all this hemming and hawing, it almost sounds as if you don’t want to be uncursed, ‘thema.”

Anathema waved her off. “Oh, cara, I do, rest assured, but we have all weekend, and I see a beautiful woman in front of us, and beautiful women should wait for nothing at all, especially when they should be ravished.” She sat up and kissed Hermione’s shoulder gently. “Also, the dirty talk that comes out of my mouth under this spell is rather delightful and I hold nothing back and the blush it brings out on your cheeks is just so delicious.” She brushed her fingers against Hermione’s cheeks. “And it happens with so little effort on my part. Contrary to what our love will tell you, I do have filters, no truth curse means actually having to think about not holding everything back.”

Narcissa sat up on Hermione’s other side, draping herself across her shoulders, tugging on Anathema. “Even when you don’t say everything you’re thinking, it’s still far freer than most people are in their speech, love.”

Anathema’s smirk was wicked. “You may have a point, but still, you can’t deny you love her blushing as well.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Hermione rolled her eyes at the two of them. She pushed herself the rest of the way out of bed and then frowned. Her robe would probably be fine, she wasn’t about to see anyone else, but basements did have a habit of being cold and she wasn’t the warmest person to start with. Narcissa grabbed her hand on the way past her, tugging her into the closet.

“Come along, darling, you didn’t think I just got you the dress, did you? I do believe we have something casual for you to wear in here.”

Hermione smiled. Of course, Narcissa hadn’t just bought her one thing. How very Narcissa of her. She followed her into the huge room and within ten seconds had loose pants, what would be a t-shirt if it wasn’t so clearly designer, and socks. She slipped them on easily and everything fit just as perfectly as her dress had.

“No underwear?” Hermione teased as Narcissa and Anathema were pulling on their own clothes. They hadn’t bothered with underthings either.

“Why waste them, we’ll just have them off of you as soon as the curse is removed, cara.” Anathema pulled her into a light kiss, pulling back before it could get heated.

“Fair enough.” Though now she was sure she should have put on something just to save the pants from the wetness that was starting to gather at her lovers’ heated looks. “Which way is the basement?” Hopefully a distraction would save them, they were very comfortable pants after all.

“This way.” Anathema tugged on her hand and led her out of the closet and into the hall, down the main stairs, and back towards the more servant centered area of the home before opening a nondescript door and ushering Hermione through. She walked down the stairs to the bottom and into a large open room, on the far wall there was a hall that looked to span the rest of the manor, with doors lining it, but this room had to cover a decent portion of the manor’s footprint all on its own.

“We’ve remodeled, obviously,” Narcissa said, coming to stand beside Hermione. “My potions lab is down the hall, first door on the left. Chances are if I’m not in the library, I will be there if you ever need me.”

“Good to know.”

“And otherwise she lets me do whatever I well feel like in this area,” Anathema said. “Mostly for the past month it has been trying out different runic variations, but also it’s a decent place for fencing practice when the weather is being typically British.”

“Fencing?” Hermione imagined the woman with a sword and had to take a moment. Godric, that was too hot to be legal.

“Oh yes, it’s good exercise, and one never does know when they might need to know how to fight without magic, yes?” Anathema’s smirk said she knew exactly what Hermione was thinking despite not being the natural legilimens of the group.

“In your line of work, I suppose not,” Hermione managed to say. 

Anathema grabbed her hand again and pulled her forward to a rather complicated runic circle. “I can show you some forms later if you would like, but for now, this is the circle I’ve been working on.” Her eyes scanned over it intently, evaluating if anything had changed or been smudged on accident. Hermione could follow most of what she’d done since it all followed her arthmantic solution, but there were places where she had no idea just what Anathema had done to get from point a to b, but it seemed as if it all worked out just fine.

“Wow, this is amazing.” She tilted her head slowly, taking everything in again. “You’ve added a few terms too, haven’t you?” There seemed to be a bit more than just what she would’ve needed following the solution, but she wasn’t entirely sure considering the blank spots in her knowledge.

“I did, good catch, cara.” She pointed to a term right in front of them. “After being cursed for so long our magic might respond negatively to having the curse removed. All magic within a person builds new connections every day as you go about using it, it’s only reasonable to expect that ours has built connections over the roots of the spell.”

Narcissa smirked. “I rather suspect that Mrs. Hawthorn is discovering that right now, if there are ill effects. What a shame.”

Hermione frowned. “She’ll be ok in the end at least? I don’t like the woman, but I don’t want her to keel over just because I removed a curse.” She’d heard of people under curses for years have some almost withdrawal-like effects, but this had only been a few months, she hadn’t even thought about such things.

“Oh of course, for this duration it will only really be like a bad hangover, she’ll be fine in a day or two,” Anathema said, waving her off.

“Nothing she doesn’t deserve.”

Well. That was true enough really. So she just nodded along. “And that one?” Hermione pointed at something halfway around the circle.

“Ah, that one is an extra safeguard against the fail-safe itself, a backup measure really, but I couldn’t be too careful considering the two of you would be using it.”

Hermione stepped into Anathema’s side. “Thank you, love.” She pointed at the last term that seemed to be extraneous to the solution she’d written. “That one?”

“Ah, that one is a rune combination of my own making.” Her eyes danced with barely suppressed mischief. “One that needs not be added to the circle for general curse breaking.”

Hermione just continued to look at Anathema, waiting for her to continue on, she knew the woman wouldn’t be able to resist telling her just what she’d done.

Narcissa stepped up to the circle and read the runes and then glanced up at Anathema to dramatically roll her eyes. “Really, darling, really? When did you add that?”

“The day before yesterday.”

Narcissa’s face morphed into a look of understanding. “I see.”

Hermione rather didn’t. “See what?”

“Tell the woman, ‘thema, else she’s like to go get a book on runes and ruin that careful planning of yours.” Narcissa stepped into the center of the circle. “Might as well go first considering I’m already over here.”

Anathema gave her a knowing look but her smirk didn’t diminish one bit. “Fine, fine.” She turned to Hermione. “I was fooling around with runes the other day to see if there was a circle I could put together on short notice that would mesh well with sex magic. I did find something, but it needs to be part of a larger circle, which I haven’t yet been able to piece together on its own. However, it was compatible with this circle as something ancillary, so I decided to include it, because I knew you would be the one breaking our curses and it would almost certainly be here at the manor, and also because Narcissa confirmed two days ago that you were determined to sleep with us after the first date, so such a thing perhaps might’ve gotten the party started, or in our case now, added some lovely spice into the mix.”

Hermione glanced down at the floor at the term in question and then back up to Anathema. “I know you think of things other than sex because you’re brilliant and have taken down international crime rings by yourself with nothing but your wits, and yet…” she trailed off teasingly.

“I think of nothing but what I want until I get it, and we’ve only accomplished the first part of my desires last night, the rest will take our entire lifetimes so.” She winked.

“So I should get used to such surprises then?” Hermione asked, wrapping herself tighter around the other woman, feeling more than a few sparks of heat go through her.

“Indeed, cara, indeed. Specifically, this rune combination induces arousal, very strong arousal, perhaps even an orgasm depending on the caster and the castee, by drawing the desire for each other to the surface, and then supplying energy to both to make sure that they can act out that desire in full. It also reduces soreness in the morning and perhaps lowers inhibitions slightly, I need to do a bit more testing to confirm that considering my inhibitions are...low when it comes to Narcissa in the first place.”

Narcissa snorted. “Non-existent would have been my choice of words.”

“Complaining, amore?”

“I didn’t say that, now did I?”

“No, I don’t suppose you did.” Her eyes carefully swept over Narcissa, assessing. “But perhaps the ropes might be used this time on you for such a glib mouth, hmm?”

Narcissa’s eyes darkened. “Hermione, darling, perhaps you should get the curse-breaking started if you’re comfortable with the addition Anathema has added?”

“Is it safe to cast it twice?” Hermione asked, already slipping out her wand.

“It is. It wears off when you fall asleep, and while it gives you energy, it won’t push you beyond any limits. Even with two of us, it should be very safe. It just might be a rather sleepless night for all of us yet again.” Anathema’s eyes were eager.

“Alright then. Just for curiosity's sake then, why can’t it be a rune on its own?”

“Needs a larger spell to be cast, needs something to interweave through, that’s what activates it. I have drafts of what I think the rest of the circle it should go in looks like to try later of course.”

“Mmm, then no time like the present to see if it’s worth expanding then isn’t it?” Hermione started casting, the curse removal coming faster now that she’d done it once already and was well-rested. She felt the beginnings of Anathema’s little add on creeping up on her, felt Narcissa’s desire for her gripping at her magic and encouraging hers forward, felt the wetness that had been at a mostly manageable level to increase tenfold. Perhaps there was no saving these pants, especially considering she had Anathema to uncurse next. Oh well, it was worth it because this magic felt just as good, if not better than the night before, but this would last and last until she was too tired to carry on. She moaned softly, swirling her wand, watching the curse drop away until it was completely broken and she smiled, panting, as Narcissa stumbled a bit forward now that she wasn’t supported by the magic.

“That certainly felt different than the test version, ‘thema, Salazar.” She sank down to the floor, sitting cross-legged neatly as she could manage. 

“Better or worse?” Anathema asked, bending down, hands running over Narcissa to make sure she was ok.

“Much better, darling, you’ll see.” She gestured to the circle. “If you could hurry, I’m sure both Hermione and I would appreciate it.”

Anathema looked over Narcissa again to be sure, but satisfied that nothing was wrong she turned to Hermione who was fairing a bit better in that she hadn’t had to sit on the floor, but really only by the skin of her teeth. “And you, cara?”

“I’m more than fine right now, believe me.” Even better when they could address the sizzling need inside of her, but she knew that would come, it had always been on the agenda next after this anyway.

“Then I suppose I will see for myself.” She stepped into the circle and looked up at Hermione, eyes dark with anticipatory lust. “Whenever you’re ready, amore.”

As if she wasn’t already. But she started casting anyway and oh Circe, if the first spell had been as intense as the night before this one was twice that. She felt like she was overloading, but true to word, it never became too much. She was able to concentrate enough to execute the curse-breaking, though it did take a  _ bit  _ more effort to do. When the spell finally was over, she was right there with Narcissa, sinking down onto the floor because she certainly wasn’t able to hold her weight up on her knees right now. She’d thought she’d known what the phrase ‘knees like jello’ had meant before, but oh was she very wrong.

Anathema came to sit between Narcissa and Hermione, still panting and looking just as unsteady as Narcissa had a few minutes before. “I do indeed see what you mean. It’s a shame we’re all too fried for apparation now, because when we break the spell on cara, we certainly won’t be able to, and it’s a long ways back to your room, bella amore.”

“There’s a guest room down the hall that I used to use if I was too tired after brewing. I believe that might serve us better in this instance.”

“You’re brilliant and I love you so, you marvelous woman.”

“And I you, darling.”

They both turned on Hermione. “Now, your turn, cara,” Anathema said, nudging her up.

Hermione wasn’t sure she would make it to the center of the circle without collapsing again, but she managed it, if only because she was afraid of smudging the runes that Anathema had worked so hard on. The woman had almost certainly put down a fixing spell on the chalk she’d used to form them, but since she wasn’t sure, she still wanted to be careful, which got her to the center, only to sit down hard again.

“How are we even going to make it to the bedroom?” Hermione asked, laughing a bit at her unsteady knees.

“We’ll help one another, I suspect.” Narcissa stood slowly, helping Anathema up, both of them drawing their wands. Hermione raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing. Anathema she was sure could cast the spell based on the runes she’d made since they went hand in hand. She hadn’t really thought of Narcissa helping, but she’d gone through the solution with her step by step, so she knew it just as well as Hermione did, really.

“Ready, cara?”

“Yup.” Not really, she wasn’t really sure if this would amplify the pleasure she felt right now, but she would welcome it if it did. They just all might have to crawl to the next available bedroom. It would be a funny story for years down the road, she was sure, something they would look on fondly as a prime example of just how head over heels they’d been for each other even at the beginning, and it would be adorable in its own way. That and it would be worth it for the slew of orgasms she was sure to have after they finally reached the bedroom. She could surely have more than one reason for taking things as they came with this next spell.

Anathema and Narcissa started casting together, working seamlessly, motions synched without having to coordinate at all. Hermione watched them in awe. She hoped that one day she’d be just as in sync with them. She’d see years from now she supposed.

When the next wave of pleasure and connection came, it wasn’t as much as the first two had been. The spell was just increasing what was already there now, instead of forming new connections, but goodness it was certainly enough. She barely even realized when the curse was broken and Anathema and Narcissa had stopped casting. It had felt like a blink of time, wrapped up in pleasure as she had been. She really only managed to get it together because Anathema and Narcissa appeared at her sides, both offering her a hand up.

“I think it’s long past time to strip you of those clothes again, cara.” Anathema smiled.

“Not helping me try to walk, my love.” But she took their hands and stood up on shaking knees and sighed, stepping into them, pressing herself against them. All of this, this curse, the investigation, Diggory, his capture, their date, it had brought them here. She didn’t much believe in fate, it was far too coupled with Divination for her liking to think it was anywhere near true, even though she’d helped Harry whose Prophecy had been true, but she believed it really could have been anyone in the long run. Harry was a great friend, but he was nothing special beyond his will to go over and beyond to help. Standing in her loves arms though? Maybe she believed, at least a little bit. All of this felt like it would always happen, would always end with her in love with these two women. It was probably part honeymoon phase, part the extra arousal rune talking now, but she didn’t mind. It was ok to be a bit frivolous now and then, wasn’t that what Luna was always trying to tell her? She’d be glad to know Hermione finally learned her lesson.

“You’re thinking rather hard, darling,” Narcissa said into her hair softly.

“Just about how much I love the two of you, and perhaps how I might be more inclined to believe in fate now, nothing serious.” She pressed a kiss to Narcissa’s neck.

“The tea leaves don’t lie, or at least not to me, if that’s what you mean.”

“Mmm, I suppose that would be part of it too, but no not really what I was thinking. There are a million things that could have led to us not meeting in my office months ago, another million that wouldn’t have led to this end. It could just be luck ending up here, but I don’t want to believe it is. This is special. So perhaps fate. It doesn’t much matter when I’m where I want to be.”

“Technically isn’t where we want to be in bed with one another naked?” Anathema asked, voice a low, teasing chuckle.

Hermione snorted. “I thought you were supposed to be the romantic one.”

“Are you implying that being in bed with me isn’t romance?” She gasped as if offended.

Hermione pulled back enough to share a knowing look with Narcissa. “Drama queen,” they both said together.

“Ah, but you do acknowledge that I am a queen. This is all any woman wants.”

Hermione’s knees felt a bit more stable, even as the same pleasure soaked magic was flowing through her. The teasing had shifted her focus enough that she felt like she might be able to actually make it to the room without falling on her face without support, so she nudged Anathema with her hip towards the hall. “Come on then, my queen, let’s go find that room you wanted badly enough to ruin the moment with a bad joke.” She stuck out her tongue at the woman, who’s eyes looked like they wanted to devour Hermione whole.

“Of course, cara, we’ll go anywhere with you.”

Hermione kept hold of Narcissa as she pulled them towards the hall, Anathema following close behind.


End file.
